








'^^ 






"^ 



N^^x. 



'^^.. V^ 

.0^^. 



V 



V^ 












o 



€, 



^'^■'^. 






^0 



,'^ 















^'^-z. * « > 












0' 



* H ' ^0" b.. 






v\' 













.-> 






' •— ■ '■* 4-7*, " ■' — \0 O 

^ * •> ^ o^ <0- '^b 









•"^^ v^' 







d^^. 



<;ir<: 



LIFE 

AND 

PUBLIC SEKYICES 

OF 

Hon. Groyer Gleyeund 



THE MODEL CITIZEN, EMINENT JURIST, AND EFFICIENT REFORM GOVERNOR 

OF THE EMPIRE STATE, ALSO THE UNANIMOUS NOMINEE 

OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY FOR THE 

Presidency of^hI United States. 

By HON. WM. DORSHEIMER, 

MEMBER OP THE U. S. CONGRESS AND LATE LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OP 

NEW YORK, THE BOSOM FRIEND AND CHOSEN BIOGRAPHER 

OF GOVERNOR CLEVELAND. 



A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 

STATESMAN AND SENATOR, 

Hon. Thomas a. Hendricks, 

DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE FOR VICE-PRESIDENT. 

By W. U. HENSEL, '^^ c) '^.fO 

/ 

EDITOR OP THE LANCASTER, PA., INTELLIGENCER, AND CHAIRMAN OP THB " 

DEMOCRATIC STATE COMMITTEE OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED. 



HUBBARD BROTHERS, Publishers: 

Philadelphia; New York; Boston; Cincinnati; Chicago; 

St. Louis; Kansas City; 

A. L. BANCROFT & CO., San Francisco, Cal. 



hl,9i 



\-^ 



^' 



Copyright, According to Act of Congress, 
By Alfred Hamilton, 



1884. 
2d. COPY 

SUPPLIED FROM 

COPYRIGHT FILES 

JANUARY, 1911. 



PREFACE. 



Campaign Biographies are a national neces- 
sity. Why? Curiosity concerning candidates 
prompts many persons to secure and read them, 
but there is a broader and deeper reason for 
their production than the demand of mere curi- 
osity. 

Our Presidents are far from being absolute 
monarchs. The humblest citizen has no need to 
stand in personal fear of our Chief Magistrate. 
He is a citizen among his fellow-citizens, like them 
amenable to the laws of the land. And yet the 
Presidency is no sinecure. The President is not 
a figure head to the good "Ship of State." Nor 
is he the commander. He is rather the pilot. 
His hand is on the helm. He directs the move- 
ments so long as they be presumptively right and 
reasonably safe ; but there is a commander in the 
embodied nation whose word can dismiss the 
pilot, and whose might can control the ship, 
whether it be for her safety or her loss. The 
people know their power. They make and 



6 PREFACE. 

unmake Presidents. But they do both these 
duties with reason and for cause, and this is 
why the thoughtful people will read about the 
candidates, for whom their votes are asked. 
Here rests, therefore, the national necessity for 
Campaign Biographies, 

And this Biography of the Democratic candi- 
dates for our highest national offices is a most 
worthy one? Long before the nominating Con- 
vention met, careful inquiry was entered into to 
discover the certainties, the probabilities, and the 
possibilities of the approaching contest. The cer- 
tainties were few; the possibilities were unlimited. 
But all promising lines were worked, and, at no 
small expense, material was gathered concerning 
every probable candidate. In none of these 
experimental efforts was there better success than 
in the case of those on whom the uncertain 
honors fell at last. 

Forwarded beyond all compeers by this prelim- 
inary work, and vigorously pushed, night and 
day, by competent authors, this Biography of the 
Democratic nominees is believed to be the first 
in the field, and wholly worthy of the nation's 
patronage. 

The Publishers. 



THE WIDEST DirFLSION OF 



F'OIvIXICAIv IWXELLIQENCE 



TO THE ITRTHERANCE OF 



NIERELY PARXIZAN ENDS 



THIS VOLUME DEDICATED. 



CONTENTS. 



PREFATORY i-iS 

BIOGRAPHY OF GROVER CLEVELAND 

CHAPTER I. 
Parentage and Early Life 21 

CHAPTER II. 
Professional Life 32 

CHAPTER HI. 
The Mayoralty 40 

CHAPTER IV. 
Canvass for Governor .• 52 

CHAPTER V. 
The GovERNORSHir. — Veto of the Five-cent Fare and other r)ills . 64 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Governorship. — Hi.s appointments to office — Labor Questions 

— Car Conductors' Bill . . . , So 

9 



lO CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VII. 
The Governorship. — Corporations 91 

CHAPTER VIII. 
The Governorship. — Municipalities 97 

CHAPTER IX. 

The Governorship. — Second Message and general Official Course . 118 

CHAPTER X. 

The Presidenti.^l Nominations. — Democratic Candidates, Mc- 
Donald, Randall, Thuiman, Morrison, Carlisle, Bayard .... 130 

CHAPTER XI. 
Political Situation. — The Monison Bill — State Convention . . 149 

CHAPTER XII. 
The Convention and Nomination. — The Unit Rule 157 



BIOGRAPHY OF HON. THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

CHAPTER I. 
The Office of Vice-President 177 

CHAPTER II. 
Ancestry and Early Life 182 

CHAPTER HI. 
The Education of the Lad 192 

CHAPTER IV. 
At the Bar ...,,,, , , 195 



CONTENTS. I I 

CHAPTER V. 
An Early Political Career ". . 203 

CHAPTER VI. 
Two Terms in Congress 207 

CHAPTER VH. 
During the War 216 

CPiAPTER VHI. 
In the United States Senate 224 

CHAPTER IX. 
Two Gubernatorial Terms 233 

CHAPTER X. 
Elected Vice-President 243 

CHAPTER XL 
Mr. Hendricks at Home 253 

CHAPTER XII. 
A Popular Public Speaker 264 

CHAPTER XIII. 
On the Stump 269 

CHAPTER XIV. 
In Controversy .275 

CHAPTER XV. 
Renominated for Vice-President 282 

CHAPTER XVI. 
After the Nomination 289 



1 2 COiXTENTS. 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Notification and Acceptance 296 



RECORD OF THE CONVENTION. 

Chapter I. Gathering of the Hosts 303 

Chapter II. Balloting 321 

Chapter III. The riatform 331 



PRINCIPLES OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

Chapter I. Principles of Washington 343 

Chapter II. Principles of Jefferson 348 

Chapter III. Principles of Madison 351 

Chapter IV. Principles of Jackson 354 

Chapter V. The Principle of State Rights 361 

Chapter VI. The Right of Coercion 367 

Chapter VII. The Future of Democracy 371 



OUR PRESIDENTS. 

1. George Washington ^ . 385 

2. John Adams 399 

3. Thomas Jefferson 405 



CONTENTS. 1 3 

4. James Madison 415 

5. James Monroe 418 

6. John Quincy Adams 422 

7. Andrew Jackson 426 

8. Martin Van Buren 4^^ 

9. William Heniy Hanison . . . .• 436 

10. John Tyler 440 

11. James Knox Polk 444 

12. Zachaiy Taylor 44S 

13. Millard Fillmore 455 

14. Franklin Pierce 458 

15. James Buchanan 462 

16. Abraham Lincoln 467 

17. Andrew Johnson 479 

18. Ulysses Simpson Grant 482 

19 Rutherford Birchard Hayes 494 

20. James Abram Garfield 49S 

21. Chester Allan Arthur 529 



THE CITIZEN'S HAND-BOOK. 



1. Bird-Eye View of Presidential Contests 535 

2. Tables of Presidential Election 543 

3. Presidential Elections of 1884 546 

4. Qualifications of Voters 547 

5. Presidents 548 

6. Vice-Presidents 549 

7. Cabinets 549 



14 CONTENTS. 

8. Commanders of Anny ^ ece 

9. Commanders (5f Navy 556 

10. Speakers of Congress 557 

11. Congressional Representation of States 557 

12. vSupreme Court Justices 559 

13. Homes of Chief Officers 560 

14. Our Representatives Abroad 561 

15. Representatives from Abroad 562 

16. Pay of Navy Officers 563 

17. Pay of Army Officers 564 

18. Pensions Paid 564 

19. Balance of Trade 565 

20. Revenues 566 

21. National Debt 567 

22. Political Divisions of Congress 568 

23. Constitution of the United States 569 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, 



His Excellency, Grover Cleveland (steel), Froiitispicce. 

State St , Albany, and the Capitol, . . 53 

Governor's Mansion at Albany, N. Y., . . 65 

Executive Chamber in the Capitol, Albany, N. Y., 107 

Samuel J Tilden, 133 

Allen G. Thurman, 133 

Joseph E. McDonald, 139 

William R. Morrison, ..... 139 

Samuel J. Randall, 145 

Thomas F. Bayard, 145 

Benjamin F. Butler, 153 

Roswell p. Flower, 153 

Hon. Thomas A. Hendricks (steel), . . , 175 

Convention in Session, .... 307 

John Kelly, the " Tammany " Leader, . , 319 

John D. Carlisle, Speaker of Congress, . 325 

George M. Hoadley, 325 

15 



1 6 illustrations. 

Capitol at Washington, .... 329 

The Presidents — Washington to Harrison, . . 383 

Mount Vernon, The Home of Washington, . 397 

Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, . . . 401 
Independence Hall, Philadelphia, . . .401 

House where " The Declaration " was Written, 407 

Monticello, the Home of Jefferson, . . 411 

The White House, Washington, D. C, . . 449 

East Room of the White House, . . . 449 

The Presidents — Tyler to Grant, . . . 469 

Lincoln's Birthplace, Elizabethtown, Ky., . 477 

Lincoln's Residence at Springfield, III., . . 477 

Birthplace of Grant, 483 

Rutherford B. Hayes, 495 

James A. Garfield, ...... 499 

Garfield's Home at Mentor, O., ... 503 

Chester A. Arthur, . • • • 533 



THE LIFE 



GROVER CLEVELAND, 

GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK 

AND 

DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



HON. WILLIAM DORSHEIMER, 

EX-LIKUTENANT GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK AND NOW 
MEMBER OF CONGRESS. 



AUTHOR'S NOTE. 



I UNDERTOOK the composition of the following- 
sketch of Grover Cleveland's life under circum- 
stances which made it difficult to refuse. I had 
known him since he first came to Buffalo, and was 
yvell-acquainted with the events of his life in that 
city. I also knew the men with whom he was 
associated there, and I know most of those who 
are now his friends and adherents. These quali- 
fications for the task are, however, subject to 
serious limitations. It is impossible to speak of 
the living with freedom, either by way of praise 
or blame. Besides, in some of the events 
referred to, I have been an actor, and cannot 
deal with them with complete impartiality. My 
work had to be done so quickly that it cannot fail 
to have serious imperfections, but it is the expres- 
sion of my deliberate judgment, and is, I believe, 
substantially correct. 

William Dorsheimer. 

Hyde Park, N. Y., July 31st, 1884. 



CHAPTER I 

PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE. 

Grover Cleveland was born at Caldwell, 
Essex County, N. J., on the iSth day of March, 
1837. His father, Richard F. Cleveland, was 
a Presbyterian minister, the son of William 
Cleveland, a watch maker, who lived at Nor- 
wich, Conn. His mother was Anna Neal, the 
daughter of an Irishman, a bookseller and pub- 
lisher in Baltimore, Md., who had married Bar- 
bara Real, a German Quakeress, of Germantown, 
Pa. In 1 84 1, the Rev. Richard F. Cleveland 
moved to Fayetteville, Onondaga County, N. Y. 
The family lived there nine years and then 
removed to Clinton, Oneida County; and in 1853 
to Holland Patent, a small villag-e fifteen miles 
north of Utica. At this time Richard Cleveland 
was described as a man of liberal culture, with 
a fine voice and considerable talents. Three 
weeks after he began his ministry at Holland 
Patent he died, leaving a widow and nine children, 
of whom Grover was the third. 

The mother upon whom this sudden responsi- 
bility had fallen was a woman of dignified appear- 
ance, with a kindly face and unusual strength of 



2 2 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

character. She combined the traits of her Irish and 
German ancestors. She hved to rear and educate 
her large family and died in April, 1882. Mr. 
and Mrs. Cleveland are buried in the cemetery at 
Holland Patent. Their children have erected a 
monument to mark their graves It bears the 
followinp- inscriptions: 

Rev. R. F. CLEVELAND, 

Pastor at 

Holland Patent, 

Died Oct. i, 1853 

Aged 49 years. 



ANNA NEAL, 

Wife of 

R. F. Cleveland, 

Died July 10, 1882, 

Aged 78 years. 
Her children arise up 
And call her blessed. 

Grover had received such teaching- as the 
country schools could furnish. But his father's 
narrow means compelled him to earn his living as 
soon as possible, and when he was fourteen years 
of age he became a clerk in a country store at 
Fayetteville. His salary the first year was fifty 
dollars, and he was to have one hundred dollars 
the second year. The removal of the family to 
Clinton gave Grover an opportunity to attend the 
academy there, and he left Fayetteville before the 
end of the second year. At Clinton he pursued 
the usual preparatory studies, intending to enter 



PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE. 2 7, 

Hamilton Collesfe. But his father's death shut 
him out of college and compelled him to begin the 
struggle of Hfe. He was then seventeen years 
old. 

His elder brother William had found employ- 
ment as a teacher in the New York Institution for 
the Blind, which is situated on Ninth Avenue 
between Thirty-third and Thirty-fourth streets. 
In October, 1853, William was appointed princi- 
pal in the male department, and about the same 
time Grover was appointed his assistant. The 
pupils were taught orally, there being at that time 
few text-books which could be read by the sense 
of touch. Grover remained at the institution a 
little more than a year. He passed the winter 
of 1854-5 at his mother's house in Holland Patent. 
This was the last of his home life. A neighbor, 
the late Ingham Townsend, who had become 
interested in the youth, proposed to him that he 
should enter college with a view of making the 
ministry his profession, but the young man's mind 
was already fixed upon the law, and declining his 
friend's offer, he asked him for a loan of twenty- 
five dollars, to carry him to Cleveland, Ohio, where 
he hoped for employment in a lawyer's office. 
On his way west he stopped in Buffalo to visit his 
uncle, Lewis F. Allen. Mr. Allen, who is still 
living at an advanced age, was one of the most 
influential cidzens of Buffalo. He was the owner 
of a large farm on Grand Island, in the Niagara 



24 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

river, where he had a herd of short-horn catde, 
and Hved at Black Rock, formerly a separate 
town, but which had been lately annexed to 
Buffalo. Mr. Allen's house is pleasantly situated 
on the bank of the river, and in the midst of con- 
siderable grounds. It is an ample old-fashioned 
brick building, and was built by General Peter B. 
Porter, who lived there for many years. A broad 
hall runs from the front door, to the western 
piazza, which commands a wide view of the 
Niagara and the Canadian shore. A mile or two 
to the north-west are the ruins of Fort Erie, 
the scene of desperate fighting during the War of 
1812, in which General Porter had been greatly 
distinguished. At this point the river is an inter- 
esting sight. It sweeps by with a current of 
between six and seven miles an hour and its broad 
green surface is flecked with foam and broken by 
countless eddies. It is not difficult for one who 
looks upon the tumultuous river and listens to its 
deep voice to imagine that it feels some premoni- 
tion of the agony which awaits it below. Grover 
was no stranger to his uncle's hospitable roof. 
He had made frequent visits there during his 
boyhood. He told Mr. Allen of his intention to 
go to Cleveland and study law. But his uncle 
strongly advised him to remain in Buffalo. The 
young man had no acquaintances in Cleveland, 
while Mr. Allen knew all the principal people in 
Buffalo and held close and friendly relations with 



PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE. 25 

• 

them. Mr. Allen had, not long before, begun the 
compilation of the "Short-horn Herd Book," and 
he proposed that Grover should assist him, offering 
him compensation and a comfortable home. In 
the autumn, on Mr. Allen's application, Grover 
entered the law office of Henry W. Rogers and 
Denis Bowen, who, under the firm name of Rog-ers 
& Bowen, did a larg-e business at the bar of 
Erie County. Thus began Grover Cleveland's 
life in Buffalo. 

It may be well enough to consider his surround- 
ings. Buffalo was then a city with about one 
hundred thousand inhabitants. It was a com- 
mercial and manufacturing community, and held 
in its control the lake commerce, then erowinsr 
into great dimensions. There were many notable 
men amongr its citizens. Mr. Fillmore had two 
years before left the Presidency and returned to 
live there. His neighbor, Nathan K. Hall, who 
had served in his cabinet as Postmaster-General, 
v/as United States Judge of the Northern District 
of New York. vSolomon G. Haven, a lawyer of 
remarkable talent, then a member of Congress, 
was the leader of the bar. Retired from his pro- 
fession and from politics was Albert H. Tracy, 
who may be described as the most interesting 
and distinguished figure in Buffalo at that time. 
He had been chosen to Congress before he was 
old enough to take his seat, and had served in 
the House of Representatives during the admin- 



26 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

istrations of Monroe and John Ouincy Adams ; 
he had been for eight years in die State Senate ; 
and in the Court of Errors he had won a judicial 
reputation, hardly inferior to any in the history of 
the State. He had acted both with the Whig and 
the Democratic parties. But it was his misfortune 
to be out of relation, in both instances, with the 
leader of his parties. He despised Jackson, and 
disliked Clay. He had assisted Seward, Weed, 
and Fillmore to create the Whig party, and left it 
in 1840, in the hour of its triumph. Mr. Webster 
tried to persuade him into Tyler's cabinet with 
the offer of the Treasury Department, but he 
declined, preferring, doubtless, to retain his Dem- 
ocratic associations which the acceptance of Mr, 
Webster's offer would have broken. Mr. Tracy 
never held office afterwards. He devoted so 
much of his time as was necessary to the care of 
his estate, but gave himself chiefly to reading and 
the society of those who interested him. Mr. 
Tracy exercised a great influence over all young 
men who came within his reach, and it is impos- 
sible to speak of Buffalo at that time without 
recalling his gracious presence, his kindly counsels 
and his delightful and instructive conversation. 
Mr. Allen was one of Mr. Tracy's intimate 
friends and the nephew was soon taken to the 
Tracy house. 

The gentlemen who made the firm of Rogers 
& Bowen were both notable men. Henry W. 



PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE. 2"] 

Rogers was a lartje man with a somewhat loud 
but hearty manner. He had at command a great 
store of anecdote, and without being- witty he 
easily said smart things, and still more easily 
bitter ones. Mr. Rogers was the advocate of the 
firm, and was a strong jury lawyer. 

Denis Bowen was a very different person. He 
was quiet and unobtrusive, never went into court, 
nor ever sought publicity. He was a master of 
detail, an excellent business lawyer, with a calm 
dispassionate judgment to which his clients 
trusted implicitly. Beneath a somewhat cold 
manner was hidden a most gentle disposition, and 
Denis Bowen was not only greatly respected, but 
greatly loved by those among whom he lived. 

At that time upon the bench of the Superior 
Court were Isaac A. Verplanck, Joseph G. Masten 
and George W. Clinton. The latter of these is, 
happily, still living, and I will, therefore, not speak 
of him. Judge Verplanck had a vigorous and 
thoroughly unpartial mind, and a huge unwieldy 
body. No one could ever find how much he 
weighed. He once made a journey to the plains 
in the stage-coach days, with Mr, Fargo and a 
party of gentlemen. It was arranged that the 
coach should be driven on to the scales at the next 
station and weighed, passengers and all, and then 
Verplanck' s weight was to be got by deducting 
the weight of the coach and the other passengers. 
But no sooner did the driver pull up than the 



25 IJFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

Judge, who was as quick of mind as slow of body, 
saw what his friends were at, and jumped from 
the coach before its weight could be taken. Judge 
Verplanck was a good lawyer and an excellent 
jucige. As a ftisi prius judge he could not be 
excelled. His dislike of work made him impa- 
tient of delay, and eager to get through. Busi- 
ness before him was done rapidly. But it was in 
criminal cases that his generous heart showed 
itself. There was little danger that injustice 
would be done in his court to any criminal, how- 
ever wretched, friendless, or guilty. Once he 
sent for a young lawyer and asked him to defend a 
man charged with murder. The youthful advocate 
pleaded his inexperience and dread of the respon- 
sibility. " Have no fear," said the Judge ; " I 
will see to it that your client does not suffer." 
In private Judge Verplanck was the pleasantest 
of companions. He was fond of food, of wine 
and good company. There was no bitterness in 
his temper, but always a genial sunshine which 
made him welcome everywhere. 

Joseph G. Mastin was by far the most learned 
lawyer in Buffalo. Those who knew him and 
others well enough to judge, thought there was 
no better lawyer anywhere. Like Verplanck, he 
had a great social charm, and was a prominent 
figure in a society full of able and interesting 
men. 

After the death of Mr. Haven, which took place 



PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE. 29 

in 1 86 1, John Garison came to be the leader of 
the Buffalo bar. He had a clear and vigorous 
intellect and untiring industry. He had been 
carefully educated and thoroughly trained for his 
profession. No one could equal him in the care 
with which his causes were prepared, nor in the 
clearness with which, brushing aside all extrane- 
ous matter, he presented the essential points of 
his argument. He had no eloquence, but his 
lucidity and conciseness, and his instinct for the 
strong points of a case, made him a very success- 
ful advocate. He served with distinction in Con- 
gress and in the State Senate, and his sudden 
death, in 1874, brought to a close a career which 
was full of promise. 

The principal person in Buffalo society at that 
time was Dr. Walter Cary, a gentleman widely 
known in this country and in Europe. The doc- 
tor had retired from his profession by reason of 
delicate health. A large estate and a ready dis- 
position to new enterprises, gave him abundant 
occupation. Travel and society were his chief 
pleasures, and the influence of his example did 
much to give to Buffalo its reputation for hospi- 
tality. 

Albert Haller Tracy was the oldest son of 
Albert H. Tracy, mentioned above. He and 
Grover Cleveland were about the same age. 
After his father's death, by which event he came 
into a large fortune, Tracy retired from the pro- 



30 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

fession In which he might easily have won distinc- 
tion. He had a mind remarkable for judgment 
and moderation. His knowledge of men and 
affairs was extensive, his reading considerable, 
and his memory most retentive. 

I have mentioned the most prominent men in 
the city in which Grover Cleveland had made his 
home, where his character was to be formed, his 
career begfun, and where he was to find an 
entrance, if he ever did, into the path which 
should lead him to fame and greatness. I have, 
however, spoken only of the dead. There are 
many living persons who should be mentioned, if 
it were intended to make a complete description 
of the associations in which Cleveland found him- 
self ; but I am not permitted to speak of the living 
with the freedom which would be necessary. 

It will thus be seen that before he was twenty 
years old, Cleveland had begun the study of his 
profession under most favorable circumstances. 
He was in the family of an uncle who lived com- 
fortably and well. He was thrown into associa- 
tion with men of talent and distinction. He was 
in the employ of a firm of able and successful 
lawyers, who were entrusted with very important 
affairs. 

Thenceforth there was no element of hardship 
in Cleveland's life. He probably never knew 
what want was. He had all that it was possible 
to have. He had opportunity as full and com- 



PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE. 3 1 

plete as if he had been born to wealth. Indeed, 
he had, in the necessity for exertion, a stimulant 
and a trainincr which wealth could not have criven 
him. The transplanted tree had found a con- 
genial soil. 

Grover Cleveland remained with Rogers & 
Bowen, as student and clerk, until 1863. At the 
outbreak of the war, the question had come to 
him as to the duty he owed his country. While 
teaching in New York, and while studying in 
Buffalo, he had always sent whatever money he 
could spare to his mother. He was then earning 
enough to make his contributions of importance 
to the family. It was therefore decided that the 
two younger brothers should go to the army, and 
that the bread winner should stay and work for 
the support of his mother and sisters. 



CHAPTER II. 

PROFESSIONAL LIFE. 

Grover Cleveland had been admitted to the 
bar in 1859, and in January, 1863, he was 
appointed Assistant District Attorney for the 
County of Erie. This position brought young 
Cleveland into court, and accustomed him to the 
trial of causes. At that time the District Attorney 
had but one assistant, and upon him fell a large 
share of the work of the office. His industry 
and evenness of temper fitted him, peculiarly, 
for his duties, and he soon held a more important 
relation to the public business than it had been 
usual for an Assistant District Attorney to have. 
This was, perhaps, due, in part, to the fact that 
Mr. Torrance, the District Attorney, did not live 
in the city, but in a village twenty-five miles dis- 
tant. He therefore naturally left much to the 
capable and industrious assistant, who was con- 
stantly at hand. The three years in the District 
Attorney's office were of great value to Cleve- 
land. They gave him confidence in himself, 
accustomed him to the trial of causes and to 
addressing juries ; enabled him to make a wide 
acquaintance among the people in the country 
32 



PROFESSIONAL LIFE. ^^ 

towns, as well as in the city, and attracted to him 
the attention of clients and the bar. 

The Assistant District Attorneyship also 
brought him into politics. From the time of his 
acceptance of that office, he was known as a 
Democratic politician. Mr, Dean Richmond, a 
man of singular ability and force of character, 
was then the principal Democrat in Western New 
York, and Qroverned local affairs with a firm hand. 
At the expiration of Mr. Torrance's term, Cleve- 
land received the Democratic nomination for 
District Attorney. His nomination to so import- 
ant an office, when he was only twenty-nine years 
old, is the strongest evidence that can be given 
of the standing he had obtained in the community 
and in his profession. His opponent was Lyman 
K. Bass, a young Republican lawyer, afterwards 
a member of Congress, and who has been pre- 
vented by ill-health from completely fulfilling the 
promise of his youth. After a heated canvass, 
Cleveland was beaten, a result not to be wondered 
at, for the county then usually went Republican. 
The writer of this sketch well remembers meetino- 
Cleveland the day after the election, and recalls 
the perfect coolness and good-humor with which 
he took his defeat. 

He at once set about the general practice of 

his profession, and soon formed a law-partnership 

with the late Isaac V. Vanderpool. In 1867, the 

writer having been appointed by President John- 

3 



34 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

son, United States Attorney for the Northern 
District of New York, offered Cleveland an 
appointment as Assistant District Attorney. This 
offer he declined, for the reason that the duties of 
the office would require frequent absence from 
the city, and he preferred to attend to his rapidly- 
growing clientage. He soon after became asso- 
ciated with the late A. P. Lanning and Oscar 
Fulsom, a young companion of Cleveland, who 
had taken the Assistant Attorneyship which the 
former had declined. The name of the new firm 
was Lanning, Cleveland & Fulsom. 

The writer remembers that one clay, early in 
the autumn of 1870, Cleveland came into his 
office, and said he wanted his opinion upon a 
matter personal to himself. He said that his 
political friends had offered him the nomination 
for sheriff of the county. "Now," said he, "I 
know that it is not usual for lawyers to be sheriffs. 
I do not remember of any lawyer being a sheriff 
But, there are some reasons why I should consider 
the matter carefully. I have been compelled to 
earn my living since I was seventeen. I have 
never had time for reading, nor for thorough pro- 
fessional study. The sheriff's office would take 
me out of practice, but it would keep me about 
the courts, and in professional relations. It would 
crive me considerable leisure, which I could devote 
to self-improvement. Besides, it would enable 
me to save a modest competency, and give me 



PROFESSIONAL LIFE, 35 

the pecuniary independence which otherwise I 
may never have. I have come for your advice. 
What would you do in my place?" I told him 
that if I were in his place I would accept the 
nomination. He received the same advice from 
other friends. He took the nomination and was 
elected. Naturally, some of the duties of the 
sheriff's office were grievously distasteful to him, 
but he performed them with that strong sense of 
duty which has always characterized him. 

He used the opportunities of the position as he 
had said he would. He made a considerable 
saving, and he gave his leisure time to profes- 
sional and other studies. As soon as he returned 
to the bar the effect was noticeable. He was a 
stronger and a broader man than he had been 
before, and he at once took a higher place than 
he had ever held. 

At the close of his term as sheriff, he formed a 
partnership with his old antagonist, Lyman K. 
Bass, and Wilson S. Bissell. Falling health com- 
pelled Mr. Bass to remove to Colorado, and after- 
wards Mr, George J. Sicard entered the firm, 
which was known as Cleveland, Bissell & Sicard. 
From this time, 1874, until his elecdon as Mayor, 
Cleveland practiced his profession with constantly 
increasing success. He came to have great skill 
in trying causes, and his arguments to the court in 
banc were nodceable for lucidity and thorough- 
ness. Many important matters were entrusted to 



36 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

him, and before he again took office he was 
beginning to receive large fees. There can be 
no doubt that, had he remained at the bar, he 
would have won as great a success as the theatre 
in which he acted would permit. 

But during these years of professional labor, 
Cleveland was not indifferent to politics. Indeed, 
he was all the time a counsellor of his party. 
After the death of Dean Richmond, in 1866, 
Joseph Warren, the editor of the Coiirie7% became 
the head of the Democratic organization in Buf- 
falo. He was a native of Vermont, who had, 
when a very young man, gone to Albany, and 
from there to Buffalo. He found employment in 
the editorial office of the Coui'icr, while the late 
William A. Seaver was its proprietor and editor. 
Upon the retirement of Mr. Seaver, he succeeded 
to the control of the paper, and was one of its prin- 
cipal owners. Mr. Warren directed party affairs 
with great judgment and self-control. . He never 
aspired to office himself, was very appreciative of 
the talents of others, and always ready to aid in 
advancing the fortunes of his friends. He was, 
besides, a promoter of all the generous enter- 
prises which promised to add to the prosperity of 
the city. All the public institutions were aided by 
his wise counsel and unselfish labors. Mr. War- 
ren was a warm friend of Cleveland's, and was 
one of the first to recognise his talents and predict 
his success. He died in 1S76, and thenceforward 



PROFESSIONAL LIFE. 37 

Cleveland was drawn into more responsible politi- 
cal relations. He was not willing to take the local 
leadership, which he might easily have had, for he 
could not give to it the necessary time and atten- 
tion. But he served on party com.mittees, and 
there was little done in party matters in Buffalo 
as to which his advice was not taken. When he 
went to Albany, many thought him ignorant of 
political methods. But they were greatly mis- 
taken. Few men know practical politics better 
than he does. 

During all these years he had been a Democrat 
of Democrats. Through good report and evil 
report, he had stood with his party. Neither 
slavery nor the war had, for an instant, diminished 
his allegiance or his zeal. 

During the early period of Cleveland's Buffalo 
life the city had begun a new career. Its wealth 
had greatly increased, and a number of young 
men with more education than their elders had 
become active in affairs. A desire for a higher 
civilization beran to show itself. The Youne 
Men's Association, which maintained a small 
library and a course of public lectures in the 
winter, had long been the principal, and it may be 
said the only literary society. But it had lan- 
guished upon a meagre income. During this time 
a movement was set afoot to secure an endow- 
ment for it. Through the exertion of several 
gentlemen, among whom the late S. V. R. Wat- 



3o LIFE OF CxROVER CLEVELAND. 

son was most prominent, a fund of between 
eighty and ninety thousand dollars was raised by 
subscription and the sale of life-memberships. A 
valuable property was purchased and the associa- 
tion provided with an abundant income. During 
this period the Buffalo Historical Society, of which 
Mr. Fillmore was the first president, was formed, 
and also the Buffalo Academy of Fine Arts. Both 
of these institutions excited the interest of the 
more liberal citizens. It doubtless seemed to 
many, an ambitious undertaking to establish an 
Academy of Fine Arts in a place so given over to 
business as Buffalo. Once, in those early days, 
Ralph Waldo Emerson went through the gallery, 
which was then largely made up of pictures on 
sale contributed by the artists of New York and 
Boston, but which also contained a number of 
works, the property of the academy, that were 
worthy of attention. Said the philosopher : "This 
has begun well and will come to something in the 
course of the agfes." Indeed those who began the 
work knew as well as any one. how little could be 
done during their life-time, but they thought a 
beginning should be made. To this period, also, 
belongs the Society of Natural History, which 
owes its success chiefly to the scientific zeal of 
George W. Clinton. 

Any traveler who, to-day, shall visit the Institu- 
tions I have mentioned, and thoroughly examine 
their collections, will be surprised to find how 



PROFESSIONAL LIFE. 39 

much has been accomplished in twenty-five years. 
He will see that Buffalo has become the centre of 
literary, artistic and scientific activities, and that 
forces have been set at work which are sure to 
strengthen with time, and to greatly influence 
the character of the place and the lives of its 
people. 

Grover Cleveland was hardly old enough to 
take part in the beginning of these things. But 
he has done his share of work in building them 
up to their present prosperous state. 

In 1872, Cleveland lost his younger brothers, 
who had represented the family in the army during 
the Civil War. They were drowned at sea in the 
burning of the Steamship Missouri near the Island 
of Abaco, October 2 2d, of that year. It is said 
that they exhibited unusual coolness and courage ; 
that they stood by the boats when they were 
lowered and helped the passengers into them, 
doinor the work the frightened officers should have 
done. But when the boats were lowered there 
was no room for them and they went down with 
the ship 



CHAPTER III. 

THE MAYORALTY. 

Four years ago Grover Cleveland was, as has 
been seen, living quietly in Buffalo and practicing 
law. Neither he nor any one foresaw the career 
which was before him, and upon which he was 
soon to enter. This may be said without dis- 
paragement, for if any intelligent resident of 
Buffalo had been asked to name a citizen who was 
by nature fit to be Governor and President, he 
would have been more likely to mention Cleveland 
than any other man in the place. 

The defeat of 1880 had not seriously impaired 
Democratic strength in Buffalo, and when the 
election of 1881 drew near, there was a strong 
feeling that a proper person could be elected to 
the Mayoralty if the Democrats should nominate 
him. City affairs were in an unsatisfactory state, 
and there was a general feeling in favor of munici- 
pal reform. The party leaders urged Cleveland 
to take the nomination. At first he refused, but 
it was pressed upon him with such urgency, and 
with so strong an appeal to his sense of duty, that 
he at last consented. His candidacy led to a 
spirited canvass, and to his election by a majority 
40 



THE MAYORALTY. 4 1 

of 3500, the largest ever known in the history of 
the city. 

He took office as Mayor on the ist day of Jan- 
uary, 1882. He at once called to his side, as his 
secretary, Mr. Harmon S. Cutting, a devoted friend, 
and a lawyer of excellent standing and great expe- 
rience, who was unrivalled for his knowledge of 
municipal law. Mr. Cleveland entered upon his 
office with a strong feeling that the affairs of 
the municipality should, so far as possible, be 
kept apart from party politics. He could not 
see why the paving, lighting and cleaning of 
streets, should depend upon the exigencies of 
parties which had been formed upon lines of state 
or national policy. His first resolve was to do 
what he thought the interests of the city required, 
without reference to the effect his action would 
have upon either the Democratic or the Republi- 
can party. In his speech accepting the nomination 
for Mayor, he said: "There is, or there should 
be, no reason why the affairs of our city should 
not be manaofed with the same care and the same 
economy as private interests ; and when we con- 
sider that public officials are the trustees of the 
people and hold their places and exercise their 
powers for the benefit of the people, there should 
be no higher inducement to a faithful and honest 
discharge of public duty." In his inaugural mes- 
sage, he used the following language : 

"We hold the money of the people in our 



42 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

hands, to be used for dieir purposes and to fur- 
ther their interests as members of the munici- 
pahty, and it is quite apparent that, when any part 
of the funds which the taxpayers have thus 
intrusted to us are diverted to other purposes, or 
when, by design or neglect, we allow a greater 
sum to be applied to any municipal purpose than 
is necessary, we have, to that extent, violated our 
duty. There surely is no difference in his duties 
and obligations, whether a person is intrusted 
with the money of one man or many." 

These two declarations laid down the rule by 
which he meant to be guided. A trust had been 
placed in his hands, and as a trust he intended to 
administer his office. The public moneys were to 
be dealt with as private moneys are dealt with, by 
a competent and honest trustee. This rule he at 
once rigidlyapplied to municipal affairs. Heapplied 
it, in a striking manner, to a resolution which was 
passed by the city council appropriating five hun- 
dred dollars to defray the expenses attending a 
proper observance of Decoration Day. It was 
proposed, that this sum of money should be paid 
out of what was known as the Fourth of July fund, 
and therefore the resolution was obnoxious to a 
provision in the charter of the city, which made 
it a misdemeanor to appropriate money raised for 
one purpose to any other object. Upon this 
ground he refused to approve the resolution. 
But he also placed his refusal upon broader 



THE MAYORALTY. 43 

erounds. In his veto messaije, amono- other 
things, he said : 

"I deem the object of this appropriation a most 
worthy one. The efforts of our veteran soldiers 
to keep ahve the memory of their fallen comrades 
certainly deserves the aid and encouragement of 
their fellow-citizens. We should all, I think, feel 
it a duty and a privilege to contribute to the funds 
necessary to carry out such a purpose. And I 
should be much disappointed if an appeal to our 
citizens for voluntary subscriptions for this patri- 
otic object should be in vain. 

" But the money so contributed should be a free 
gift of the citizens and taxpayers, and should not 
be extorted from them by taxation. This is so, 
because the purpose for which this money is asked 
does not involve their protection or interest as 
members of the community, and it may or may 
not be approved by them. 

" The people are forced to pay taxes into the 
city treasury only upon the theory that such 
money shall be expended for public purposes, or 
purposes in which they all have a direct and practi- 
cal interest. 

" The logic of this position leads directly to the 
conclusion that, if the people are forced to pay 
their money into the public fund and it is spent by 
their servants and agents for purposes in which the 
people as taxpayers have no interest, the exaction 
of such taxes from them is oppressive and unjust. 



44 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

"I cannot rid myself of the idea that this city 
government, in its relation to the taxpayers, is a 
business establishment, and that it is put in our 
hands to be conducted on business principles. 

'* This theory does not admit of our donating 
the public funds in the manner contemplated by 
the action of your honorable body, 

"I deem it my duty, therefore, to return both 
of the resolutions herein referred to without my 
approval." 

^This act attracted the attention of the whole 
community. The leading newspapers, without dis- 
tinction of party, gave it their approval. But in 
order that the object for which the money had 
been voted should be accomplished, a subscription 
was at once set afoot, which the Mayor headed by 
a liberal contribution. He soon had an opportu- 
nity to apply his principles to a more important 
matter. The City Council had awarded the con- 
tract for cleaning the streets for five years for the 
sum of four hundred and twenty-two thousand, 
five hundred dollars. Another party had offered 
to do the work for one hundred thousand dollars 
less, and the person to whom the contract had 
been given had himself, a few weeks before, pro- 
posed to perform the same service for fifty thou- 
sand less. This scandalous transaction was dealt 
with by the Mayor with a commendable directness 
and frankness ; he returned the resolution with a 
message, which contained the following language : 



THE MAYORALTY. 45 

"This is a time for plain speech, and my objec- 
tion to the action of your honorable body now 
under consideration shall be plainly stated. I 
withhold my assent from the same, because I regard 
it as the culmination of a most barefaced, impudent 
and shameless scheme to betray the interests of 
the people, and to worse than squander the public 
money. 

" I will not be misunderstood in this matter. 
There are those whose votes were ofiven for this 
resolution whom I cannot and will not suspect of 
a willful neglect of the interests they are sworn to 
protect ; but it has been fully demonstrated that 
there are influences, both in and about your hon- 
orable body, which it behooves every honest man 
to watch and avoid with the greatest care. 

''When cool judgment rules the hour, the people 
will, I hope and believe, have no reason to com- 
plain of the action of your honorable body. But 
clumsy appeals to prejudice or passion, insinua- 
tions, with a kind of low, cheap cunning, as to the 
motives and purposes of others, and the mock 
heroism of brazen effrontery which openly declares 
that a wholesome public sentiment is to be set at 
naught, sometimes deceives and leads honest men 
to aid in the consummation of schemes, which, if 
exposed, they would look upon with abhorrence. 

"If the scandal in connection with this street 
cleaning contract, which has so aroused our citi- 
zens, shall cause them to select and watch with 



46 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

more care those to whom they intrust their inter- 
ests, and if it serves to make all of us who are 
charged with official duties more careful in their 
performance, it will not be an unmitigated evil. 

" We are fast gaining positions in the grades of 
public stewardship. There is no middle ground. 
Those who are not for the people, either in or out 
of your honorable body, are against them, and 
should be treated accordingly." 

This bold and honorable act attracted wide at- 
tention, and laid the foundation of a reputation 
which soon extended throughout the State. 

Mr. Cleveland continued to apply to the affairs 
of Buffalo the same inflexible rule of administering 
his office as though it were a trust. There can 
be no doubt that the result was a success greater 
than has ever been accomplished upon so narrow 
a political field as a single municipality. At home, 
the favor which he obtained was quite universal. 
All party differences disappeared before a public 
officer who performed his duties with so complete 
a reference to the general welfare. 

During the short term of his mayoralty there 
were several occasions which compelled him to 
speak upon important topics. But whatever sub- 
ject he dealt with was presented in the light of 
the principle he had from the first declared should 
guide his conduct. In speaking at the semi-cen- 
tennial celebration of the foundation of the city, 
July 3d, 1882, he said: 



THE MAYORALTY. 47 

"We boast of our citizenship to-night. Bid 
this citizenship brings with it duties not unlike those 
we ozve our neighbor and our God. There is no 
better time than this for self-examination. He 
who deems himself too pure and holy to take part 
in the affairs of his city, will meet the fact that 
better men than he have thought it their duty to 
do so. He who cannot spare a moment in his 
greed and selfishness to devote to public con- 
cerns, will, perhaps, find a well- grounded fear 
that he may become the prey of public plun- 
derers ; and he who indolently cares not who 
administers the government of his city, will find 
that he is living falsely, and in the neglect of his 
highest duty." 

When laying the corner-stone of the Young 
Men's Christian Association building, on the yth of 
September, 1882, he used the following language : 
" We all hope and expect that our city has 
entered upon a course of unprecedented pros- 
perity and growth. But to my mind not all 
the signs about us point more surely to real great- 
ness than the event which we here celebrate. 
Good and pure goveriiment lies at the foundation 
of the wealth and progress of every community. As 
the chief executive of this proud city, I congratu- 
late all my fellow-citizens that to-day we lay the 
foundadon stone of an edifice which shall be a 
beautiful ornament, and, what is more important, 
shall enclose within its walls such earnest Chrisdan 



48 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

endeavors as must make easier all our efforts to 
administer safely and honestly a good municipal 
ofovernment." 

These utterances disclose the high moral pur- 
pose in which his whole nature seemed to be 
absorbed, and which he was, in a measure, com- 
pelled to profess upon every occasion when he 
was required to address the people. Perhaps 
there was no occasion on which he made so clear 
a revelation of himself and his character as by the 
address which he delivered on the 9th of April, 
1882, when taking the chair at a mass meeting to 
protest against the treatment of American citizens 
imprisoned abroad. This short speech is worthy 
of the careful attention of all those who wish to 
understand his mind and character: 

" Fellow Citizens. — This is the formal mode 
of address on occasions of this kind, but I think 
we seldom realize fully its meaning or how valu- 
able a thing it is to be a citizen. 

" From the earliest civilization to be a citizen 
has been to be a free man, endowed with certain 
privileges and advantages, and entitled to the full 
protection of the State. The defense and protec- 
tion of the personal rights of its citizens has always 
been the paramount and most important duty of 
a free, enlightened government. 

" And perhaps no government has this sacred 
trust more in its keeping than this — the best and 
freest of them all ; for here the people who are to 



THE MAYORALTY. 49 

be protected are the source of those powers which 
they delegate upon the express compact that the 
citizen shall be protected. For this purpose we 
chose those who, for the time being:, shall manag^e 
the machinery which we have set up for our 
defense and safety. 

" And this protection adheres to us In all lands 
and places as an incident of citizenship. Let but 
the weight of a sacrilegious hand be put upon this 
sacred thine, and a great strono- grovernment 
springs to its feet to avenge the wrong. Thus it 
is that the native born American citizen enjoys his 
birthrigfht. But when, in the westward march of 
empire, this nation was founded and took root, 
we beckoned to the Old World, and invited hither 
its immigration, and provided a mode by which 
those who sought a home among us might become 
our fellow citizens. They came by thousands and 
hundreds of thousands ; they came and 

Hewed the dark old woods away, 
And gave the virgin fields to day ; 

they came with strong sinews and brawny arms 
to aid In the growth and progress of a new coun- 
try ; they came, and upon our altars laid their 
fealty and submission ; they came to our temples 
of justice, and under the solemnity of an oath 
renounced all allegiance to every other State, 
potentate and sovereignty, and surrendered to us 
all the duty pertaining to such allegiance. We 

4 



50 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

have accepted their fealty, and invited them to 
surrender the protection of their native land. 

"And what should be given them in return? 
Manifestly, good faith and every dictate of honor 
demand that we give them the same liberty and 
protection here and elsewhere which we vouchsafe 
to our native-born citizens. And that this has 
been accorded to them is the crowning glory of 
American institutions. 

" It needed not the statute, which is now the 
law of the land, declaring that all 'naturalized 
citizens while in foreign lands are entitled to and 
shall receive from this government the same pro- 
tection of person and property which is accorded 
to native-born citizens,' to voice the policy of our 
nation. 

"In all lands where the semblance of liberty is 
preserved, the right of a person arrested to a 
speedy accusation and trial is, or ought to be, a 
fundamental law, as it is a rule of civilization. 

'•/Vt ^ny rate, we hold it to be so, and this is 
one of the rights which we undertake to guarantee 
to any native-born or naturalized citizen of ours, 
whether he be imprisoned by order of the Czar 
of Russia or under the pretext of a law admin- 
istered for the benefit of the landed aristocracy 
of England. 

"We do not claim to make laws for other 
countries,. but we do insist that whatever those 
laws may be they shall, in the interests of human 



THE MAYORALTY. 5 I 

freedom and the rights of mankind, so far as they 
invoh'e the Hberty of our citizens, be speedily 
administered. We have a right to say, and do 
say, that mere suspicion without examination or 
trial, is not sufficient to justify the long imprison- 
ment of a citizen of America. Other nations 
may permit their citizens to be thus imprisoned. 
Ours will not. And this in effect has been 
solemnly declared by statute. 

"We have met here to-niaht to consider this 
subject and to inquire into the cause and the 
reasons and the justice of the imprisonment of 
certain of our fellow-citizens now held in British 
prisons without the semblance of a trial or legal 
examination. Our law declares that the govern- 
ment shall act in such cases. But the people are 
the creators of the government. 

"The undaunted apostle of the Christian relig- 
ion imprisoned and persecuted, appealing centuries 
ago to the Roman law and the rights of Roman 
citizenship, boldly demanded : "Is it lawful for 
you to scourge a man that is a Roman and 
uncondemned ? " 

"So, too, might we ask, appealing to the law 
of our land and the laws of civilization: 'Is it 
lawful that these our fellows be- imprisoned who 
are American citizens and uncortdemned ? ' 

"I deem it an honor to be called upon to pre- 
side at such a meeting, and I thank you for it. 
What is your further pleasure? " 



CHAPTER IV. 

CANVASS FOR GOVERNOR. 

Early in the summer of 1882 Mr. Cleveland's 
friends began to consider the propriety of bring- 
ing him forward as a candidate for Governor. 
The first public announcement of this intention 
was made in the columns of The Daily News, 
a Republican paper, which had become a strong 
supporter of Mayor Cleveland. The editor sent 
letters to many prominent people in the State, 
asking their opinion as to Mr. Cleveland's candi- 
dacy. The responses were remarkably favorable, 
and showed that the Mayor's course had attracted 
attention in all parts of the State. The public 
opinion of Buffalo responded readily to the appeals 
which were made by The Nezvs. No citizen 
of Buffalo had ever been Governor. Mr. Fill- 
more had been a candidate upon the Whig 
ticket in 1844, but was defeated by Silas Wright. 
Since that time no Buffalonian had ever received 
even a nomination for the office. Buffalo men 
had long felt that they were overlooked. Indeed, 
not only the city, but the whole western region, 
known as the Eighth Judicial District, had reason 
to think that it had not received its fair share of 




STATE STRF.KT AND CAPITOL, ALBANY, N. Y. 



CANVASS FOR GOVERNOR. 55 

party honors. With the exception of Governor 
Fenton, no Governor or United States Senator 
had ever been chosen from all the country west 
of the Genesee river. It was easy to awaken the 
pride of a people who had so long been neglected. 
The movement in favor of Cleveland rapidly 
spread through all the western counties. After 
the Republican Convention had nominated Judge 
Folger, it took the character of a non-party move- 
ment. It was soon difficult to determine who 
were most in favor of Cleveland, the Democrats 
who brought him forward, or the Republicans who 
came to his support. The popular impulses were 
quickened by the general confidence in his char- 
acter, judgment and integrity. Many thought 
that it would be well to send to Albany a man 
who had shown himself so trustworthy at home. 
When the Democratic Convention met in Syra- 
cuse, all the delegates from the western counties 
came there, ardent supporters of Cleveland, They 
were accompanied by a large body of citizens, 
who advocated their favorite with an energy such 
as was shown in behalf of no one else. 

Up to this time the Cleveland movement had 
excited only a languid interest at the East. It 
was not believed, by the party managers, that a 
new man, living at the western end of the State, 
could become a formidable competitor for the 
nomination. The Chairman of the State Commit- 
tee had received the suggestion of Mr. Cleveland's 



56 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

candidacy with indifference and incredulity. But 
the political situation was singularly favorable to 
a man who lived away from the scene of party 
contentions, and who was unconnected with the 
factions into which the Democrats of New York 
and Brooklyn were divided. In New York these 
divisions were so serious as to make it doubtful 
whether the party could be united. In 1878 the 
opponents of the regular organization had made 
an open alliance with the Republicans, and a coali- 
tion ticket, made up partly of Democrats and 
partly of Republicans, had been elected. It had 
been usual for the Governor to stand aloof from 
municipal factions, but in 1878, the Governor, Mr. 
Robinson, openly sided with the coalition, and 
used all of his power to defeat the party nominees. 
In consequence of this, Tammany Hall determined 
not to support Governor Robinson, if he were 
nominated for election, and openly declared that 
intention before the meeting of the Convention. 
This avowal was artfully used by the friends of 
Governor Robinson. It was represented to the 
country Democracy as a threat, and they were 
urged not to submit to Tammany dictation. The 
Republican journals, eager to promote Democratic 
dissensions, enforced this view, and their columns 
were filled with appeals to the country Democrats 
to stand firm ; and with denunciations of Mr. Kelly 
and his followers. Prejudice and passion were 
easily excited. The Democratic Convention of 



CANVASS FOR GOVERNOR. 57 

1879 met under the stress of a feeling so strong- as 
to make deliberation impossible. Tammany was 
listened to, indeed, but her advocates addressed 
minds already resolved. Their remonstrances 
were disregarded, and Governor Robinson was 
re-nominated. The Tammany representatives at 
once left the Convention, and meeting the same 
evening with some sympathizers from other coun- 
ties, nominated John Kelly, of New York, as their 
candidate for Governor. A contest then took 
place without parallel in the history of the State. 
Mr. Kelly's supporters had no organization any- 
where except in the City of New York, no means 
of distributing tickets or securing attendance at 
the polls. Notwithstanding the lack of organiza- 
tion, Mr. Kelly received votes in every County in 
the State, and when the returns were canvassed, 
it was found that seventy thousand Democrats, 
about one in seven of the Democratic voters, had 
thrown their ballots for a candidate who, it was 
certain, could not be elected. 

This result made a decided change in the politi- 
cal situation. It was impossible to ignore a body 
of men whose friends were found ever^avhere, and 
whose numbers were so great. Therefore, in 
1880, the Tammany representatives were received 
at the State Convention. But in 1881 the dele- 
gates from Tammany Hall were refused admission 
to the Convention. 

The organization again showed its usual 



58 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

Strength at the polls. A majority of the Demo- 
crats of the city supported its candidates, and it 
elected a sufficient number of Senators and 
Assemblymen to hold the balance of power in the 
Legislature. 

The question, in 1882, was how to secure a 
union of Democrats in the city. It was clear that 
this could most easily be done by nominating some 
gentleman who had not been connected with State 
politics, but who had still acquired the necessary 
reputation and standing. Mr. Cleveland filled all 
these conditions. Indeed, he was more fortunate 
than either of his rivals. These were Roswell P. 
Flower and General Henry W. Slocum. Mr. 
Flower had acted, in 1877, as Chairman of the 
State Executive Committee, and in that capacity 
had managed the successful campaign of that year. 
He had served a term in Congress, but his reputa- 
tion was chiefly that of a business man, and he had 
had, or was supposed to have had, such intimate 
relations with Tammany Hall, that the opponents 
of that organization looked upon him with sus- 
picion. General Slocum was well fitted for the 
highest public employments. He was an excel- 
lent soldier. He had risen rapidly from the com- 
mand of a regiment to a Major-Generalship, and 
had proved himself equal to all the emergencies 
of war. Any one who will study the battle of 
Glendale, the last great encounter of the war, will 
come to the conclusion that General Slocum might 



CANVASS FOR GOVERNOR. 59 

have been entrusted with the most important 
miHtary operations. But he was not generally- 
appreciated at his true value. He has no faculty 
for public display, and a somewhat reserved dis- 
position makes it difficult to know him well ; and 
full knowledge of him is needed before one is 
likely to realize how strong and able a man he is. 
He was presented to the Convention by the 
Brooklyn delegation, but the relations between the 
Brooklyn leaders and the New York Democrats 
had been such as to make the latter reluctant to 
accept General Slocum. 

The Tammany representatives were admitted 
to the Convention. On the third ballot their votes 
were thrown for Grover Cleveland, and secured 
his nomination. 

As soon as the canvass opened it was seen that 
the choice had been a wise one. The movement 
for Cleveland rose in the West to a great height 
and ran swiftly through the State, Everywhere 
factional differences were swept away. In New 
York the adherents of Tammany and of the 
County and Irving Hall organizations united in 
support of the State ticket, and upon all other 
important nominations. 

The Republican dissensions were increased in 
proportion to the growth of Democratic union 
and enthusiasm. Those Republicans who were 
disposed to vote against their party, were not 
deterred by fear of failure. The certainty of 



6o LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND, 

Cleveland's election increased die temptation to 
aid his cause. Thousands were eager to add to 
the weight of the blow which was to fall on the 
Administration and its friends. The Republican 
candidate was an eminent citizen. He had shown 
high abilities in many public employments. His 
character was without a stain. He was Chief 
Justice of the State ; and a long career on the 
bench had won for him that general esteem and 
public favor which successful judicial service almost 
always wins. But the more worthy the candidate 
the more impressive the lesson of his defeat. The 
murder of Garfield was to be avenged ; party 
chains were to be broken ; an accidental President 
was to be rebuked ; the forgery of a telegram 
was to be punished, and Republican independence 
and manhood were to be asserted. The party 
difficulties were increased by the attitude of lead- 
ing men. 

Mr. Evarts, who had always been ready to give 
his elaborate eloquence to his party, was silent, and 
what was of far more importance, Roscoe Conk- 
ling also was silent. For more than a decade he 
had been the Republican advocate. His popular 
triumphs had been without precedent. In 1872, 
when Republican supremacy was threatened by a 
revolt, formidable on account of the number and 
the character of the rebels, he excited the Repub- 
licans who remained faithful to their party to un- 
exampled efforts ; efforts which created a Demo- 



CANVASS FOR GOVERNOR. 6 1 

cratic supineness far more effective at the polls 
than the liberal Republican rebellion. In 1876 he 
had held his party together amid great discour- 
agements, and upon a lost field. He had after- 
wards stood aloof from the intrigues by which Mr, 
Tilden had been deprived of the office to which 
he had been elected. In 1882, at a time when 
Republican defeat seemed to be certain — when 
Mr. Blaine had been beaten in Maine, and the 
October elections in Ohio and' Indiana were in the 
greatest doubt — he reluctantly came forward to 
aid a candidate whom he distrusted and despised. 
He threw himself into the canvass with all his 
accustomed zeal. Those who have never heard 
Mr. Conklinor addressinof a g^reat meetine can 
have but little idea of the vigor, brilliancy, and 
fiery energy of his picturesque eloquence. The 
effect of his speeches at the West, and in this 
State, cannot be over-stated. Never, in our 
politics, has any one made such a display of per- 
sonal power. But in 1882 he was silent. It is 
not necessary to explain here the causes of his 
silence. Its effects were to be seen plainly 
enough by all who watched the events of that 
year. 

The Republican disaffection grew more power- 
ful every day. Party journals, like the Buffalo 
Express, openly advocated Cleveland's election. 
The Albany yoiirnal, the New York Tinics, and 
the Tribune gave Judge Folger but a cold sup- 



62 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

port. The friends of Garfield wished his defeat. 
The friends of ConkHng wished his defeat ; and 
to these discontents, added to Democratic enthu- 
siasm, the friends of President Arthur could make 
but little resistance. The Republican treasury 
was without funds, and had the canvass lasted two 
weeks longer, the Republican cause would proba- 
bly have been practically abandoned. The elec- 
tion resulted in a majority of one hundred and 
ninety-two thousand for Grover Cleveland ; in 
the election of twenty-one Democratic members 
of the House of Representatives, and of a large 
majority in the State Assembly. The wisdom of 
those who had advised Mr, Cleveland's nomina- 
tion was abundantly vindicated by this overwhelm- 
ing victory. 

In that hour of triumph there was one man 
whose mind was filled with anxiety. The Demo- 
cratic candidate had, during the canvass, borne 
himself modestly, and had passed his time in the 
duties of his office. He heard the news of his 
success with joy, indeed, but it was a joy tempered 
by a sense of the undefined responsibilities which 
lay before him. This feeling showed itself in the 
speech which he made the night of his election 
at the Manhattan Club, and even more strongly 
in the address which he made upon taking the 
oath of ofifice. 

To many, the governorship thus attained sug- 
gested the presidency. If this high anticipation 



CANVASS FOR GOVERNOR. 63 

came to him, as it did to others, it made no change 
in his demeanor. DeUberately and calmly he 
began to prepare for his departure, and performed 
the preliminary work in the composition of his 
message and the selection of his staff, as unosten- 
tatiously as if they were in the ordinary course of 
his daily employment. 

" If chance will have one king, why, chance may crown me 
Without my stir." 



CHAPTER V. 

THE GOVERNORSHIP. 

VETO OF THE FIVE-CENT FARE BILL AND OTHER VETOES. 

Mr. Cleveland entered upon the Governor- 
ship under certain disadvantages. The accession 
of a new Governor always excites pubhc expecta- 
tion. This expectation was greatly increased and 
quickened by the incidents of the canvass, by the 
unprecedented majority he had received, and by 
the fact that he was new to public life. The peo- 
ple naturally looked with exceeding curiosity for 
the first of his public acts in order that they might 
determine what manner of man he was, and how 
fitted for the great place into which he had so sud- 
denly come. His acquaintance with public men 
was limited, and his acquaintance with the affairs 
of the State was probably only such as would be 
obtained by a lawyer in the ordinary course of his 
profession. He had never been in the Legisla- 
ture, nor in any way connected with the State 
administration. He set about his work with a 
strong sense of these deficiencies, but with a reso- 
lution to do whatever he found to be his duty, so 
64 




GOVERNOR'S MAN-SION, ALBANY, N. Y. 



THE CxOVERNORSHIP. ^"J 

clear and firm that those who knew hnii best had 
httle doubt of his success. 

The niofht before his inausfuration he said to a 
friend that he looked forward to the three years 
to come with dread. Said he : "I shall never be 
happy again until I get back to Buffalo." His 
friend replied : "You will change your mind. I 
will come here at the beginning of the second 
year, and you will then tell me that you have 
found the Governorship a pleasant place, for you 
will find in it abundant opportunities to be useful." 
It was not necessary to wait a year for the change 
of opinion : for when the gentlemen met a few 
months afterwards, the Governor confessed that 
he had not found his office as unpleasant as he 
had expected. The situation was not an easy one. 
The labor questions, as they are called, had come 
to be pressing and important. The employment of 
convict labor in manufactures had oriven offence 
to many of the working men, and presented a sub- 
ject of great delicacy and difficulty. 

A strong feeling had grown up in respect to the 
corporations, and there was much discussion as 
to the taxation they should be made to bear. This 
feeling had brought about the passage of a law 
creatincr a railroad commission. The Leoislature 
had not been willing to give to Governor Cornell 
the appointment of the Commissioners, and that 
duty had been thrown upon his successor. In 
addition to these more prominent subjects there 



68 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

were a great variety of important affairs, such as 
are always incident to government in a common- 
wealth like New York. 

Governor Cleveland's first message to the Leg^- 
islature was a simple, and, it may be said, a some- 
what timid document. At the outset he made an 
intimation that a newly elected Executive could 
"hardly be prepared to present a complete exhibit 
of State affairs." He therefore confined himself 
to such a review of the finances and of the various 
departments of the government as could be predi- 
cated upon reports made to him by State officials. 
It was clear that the Governor intended to wait for 
some other occasion in which to give the public 
a taste of his quality. 

There was, doubtless, some popular disappoint- 
ment over the first message. But it was not long 
before he was able to show so clearly that it could 
not be doubted, that a man of great force of char- 
acter and strength of purpose had come into the 
Governorship. He began to use the veto power 
with unusual frequency. Between the 26th of 
January and the ist of March he sent to the Leg- 
islature eieht veto messages. These documents 
clearly disclose his purposes. In one, he refused 
to permit the County of Montgomery to borrow 
money. In another he refused his consent to an 
amendment of the charter of Elmira which was 
intended to change the liability of the city for in- 
juries received in consequence of the streets being 



THE GOVERNORSHIP. 69 

in an unsafe and dangerous condition. He re- 
fused his signature to a bill which would have 
relieved the library association of Fredonia from 
the payment of local taxes, and to one that author- 
ized the County of Chautauqua to appropriate 
money for a soldiers' monument. He vetoed an 
act authorizing the village of Fayetteville, where 
he had lived during his boyhood, to borrow money 
for the purpose of purchasing a steam fire-engine, 
and also one authorizing the village of Mechanics- 
ville to borrow money for the same purpose. 

By these vetoes he showed that he was deter- 
mined to adhere to the rule which had gov- 
erned him while Mayor of Buffalo, and to deal 
with the public moneys on the principle that offi- 
cials are the trustees of the people. 

On the 2d of March, 1883, he did an act 
which has proved the most important one of 
his administration, and which has subjected him 
to severe criticism. This was the veto of a bill 
which reduced the fares on the elevated railroads 
in New York to five cents. This act was of such 
far-reaching consequence as to require full expla- 
nation and the consideration of the reasons and 
motives which controlled the Governor. 

The question involved may be simply stated. 
It has been generally supposed that it was merely 
a question of a change by the Legislature in the 
law, by which railway fares were regulated, and to 
the suggestion commonly made that the act author- 
5 



yo LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

izing a railway corporation to charge certain rates 
of fares was in the nature of a contract ; the answer 
had been made that one Legislature could not so 
bind the action of a future Legislature as to create 
a contract which would be protected by the pro- 
vision in the Constitution of the United States, 
prohibiting any State from impairing the obliga- 
tion of a contract. But the question presented 
by the five-cent fare bill was not such a question 
at all. By an act of the Legislature, passed in 
April, 1868, it had been provided that the railway 
company and the city of New York might enter 
into an arrangement by which the company should 
undertake to pay into the city treasury five per 
cent, of its net earnings, and by which the company 
should be entitled to charge certain rates of fare 
which should not be chanored without the mutual 
consent of the parties to the said agreement. This 
contract was subsequently ratified and confirmed 
by an act of the Legislature. It will be seen, 
therefore, that a contract had been made, pursuant 
to Legislative permission, and which had after- 
wards received Legislative ratification, as to which 
there was, to say the least, a serious question as 
to. whether it was not protected by the clause in 
the Constitution of the United States above referred 
to. The position taken by the Governor as to 
this branch of the case was supported by several 
decisions of the Supreme Court of the United 
States and of the Courts of New York. 



THE GOVERNORSHIP. 7 I 

There were also other questions involved in 
the bill. There were high considerations of pub- 
lic policy and public faith. It had been found 
extremely difficult to obtain the necessary capital 
to build the rapid transit roads in New York. 
There was no precedent upon which business 
men could base their calculations. For years all 
the rapid transit enterprises had languished. The 
great capitalists of the city refused to invest in 
them. Neither Vanderbilt nor the Astors, none 
of the great railway proprietors, none of the great 
real estate owners invested in them. The men 
who finally carried them through were mainly 
merchants, and others who were accustomed to 
hazardous speculations. 

Chief among them was Cyrus W. Field, who 
had risked his whole estate in the scheme of lay- 
ing the cable across the Atlantic ; Mr. Tilden, 
who had made his fortune by speculation ; and 
Commodore Garrison, one of the most daring 
and venturesome of the business men of his time. 

The final success of the enterprise was not 
assured. It had not yet been ascertained how 
long the expensive structures would last. Dis- 
putes had arisen with the city about taxation, 
involving several millions. The question whether 
the company was liable to the owners of adjoining 
property for damages was still undecided, and 
was pending in the courts. Under circumstances 
like these, it mi^ht well be doubted whether 



72 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

it was politic for the State to impair the com- 
pany's revenues. If the fares could be reduced 
to five cents, they might be reduced to three cents. 
But the faith of the State was also seriously 
involved. The fares of the New York Central 
had been fixed at two cents a mile by an act 
passed thirty years before. The fares of the other 
railway corporations were also limited by law. 
It was not to be doubted that the capital by which 
these great works had been constructed was fur- 
nished upon the belief that the legalized rates of 
fare would be continued, and certainly that no 
change would be made except in accordance with 
the provisions of the statute, which declared that 
the rates of fare should not be reduced unless the 
comptroller and the state engineer should ascer- 
tain that the corporation was earning a profit 
greater than ten per cent, upon the cost of con- 
struction. For a commercial community like New 
York to disregard the implied obligation which 
had arisen between the State and its citizens, and 
between the State and citizens of other states 
and countries, would have been, in the judgment 
of many thoughtful men, a dangerous and per- 
nicious act. This latter view was taken by 
Governor Cleveland, in the following extract from 
his veto messagfe : 

"But we have especially in our keeping the 
honor and eood faith of a orreat State, and we 
should see to it that no suspicion attaches, through 



THE GOVERNORSHIP. "] -^ 

any act of ours, to the fair fame of the Common- 
wealth. The State should not only be strictly 
just, but scrupulously fair, and in its relations to 
the citizen every legal and moral obligation should 
be recognized. This can only be done by legis- 
lating without vindictiveness or prejudice, and 
with a firm determination to deal justly and fairly 
with those from whom we exact obedience." 

Mr, Edson, the Mayor of the city had earnestly 
advised the Governor not to sign the bill, and Mr. 
Erastus Brooks, a member of the Assembly, and 
a citizen of great consideration and distinction, 
warmly approved the veto. The Rev. Dr. Ander- 
son, President of Rochester University, and a 
political opponent of Governor Cleveland, wrote 
to him in warm terms of approval. In a letter 
which he addressed to Governor Cleveland, on the 
4th of March, 1883, he said : 

"I cannot, in justice to my convictions, refrain from 
expressing my gratitude for your veto message, which I 
have just read. I have no personal interest in any of the 
great corporations which were directly or indirectly 
affected by the bill, from which you have so wisely with- 
held your approval. But the just and statesmanlike 
position taken in your message, seems to me a most fit- 
ting rebuke to the demagogism which is ready to trifle 
with those sacred rights of property guaranteed by our 
State and national constitutions. In these safeguards of 
property, the poor man has a more vital interest than the 
capitalist, for they make secure the poor man's savings, 
which constitute his only means of support. 



74 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

" I have taken occasion to commend your message to 
the careful consideration of my students as an exhibition 
of the principles which should govern their actions 
should they be called to fill public station in their future 
lives. I trust you will pardon me for obtruding myself 
upon your attention. As a teacher of young men, I feel 
grateful to any public functionary who illustrates in his 
person the lessons which I am so anxious to impress 
upon their minds. Again I thank you for the courage- 
ous and worthy action which you have adopted to secure 
sound government for our great State." 

Andrew D. White, the President of Cornell 
University, in writing to a friend, used the follow- 
ing language : 

" I will say to you frankly, that I am coming to have 
a very great respect and admiration for our new Governor. 
His course on the Elevated Railroad bill first com- 
mended him to me. Personally, I should have been glad 
to have seen that company receive a slap. But the 
method of administering it seemed to me very insidious 
and even dangerous, and glad was I to see that the Gov- 
ernor rose above all the noise and clap-trap which was 
raised about the question, went to the fundamental point 
of the matter and vetoed the bill. I think his course at 
that time gained the respect of every thinking man in the 
State." 

Whatever the public opinion was as to the 
points of law stated by the Governor in his veto 
message, or as to the wisdom of his action, no 
one doubted his sincerity, nor was there thence- 
forward any doubt whatever as to his firmness 
and courage. 



THE GOVERNORSHIP. 75 

There were many who had advised him to let 
the bill become a law without his signature, and 
to leave it to the courts to decide whether the law 
was constitutional or not. But it had never been 
customary for the Governors of New York to 
shirk their duties, and Governor Cleveland was 
not willing to set a bad example. He said in his 
message, " I am convinced, that in all cases the 
share which falls upon the Executive regarding 
the legislation of the State, should be in no man- 
ner evaded, but fairly met by the expression of 
his carefully guarded and unbiased judgment." 

It may be doubted whether there were any, 
even among those who most loudly denounced 
his action, who did not have a higher opinion of 
him after the veto than before. By the owners of 
property throughout the whole State his conduct 
was received with approval. 

Soon after the veto, the railroad commissioners 
were instructed to examine and report as to the 
cost of running the elevated railroad. Their 
report showed that a reduction to a five-cent fare 
would, at the number of passengers carried in 
1882, so reduce the income of the companies as 
to prevent them from providing for the interest on 
their bonded debt. It also appeared that the rate of 
fare during what are known as commission hours, 
to wit, from half-past five to half-past eight in the 
morning, and from half-past four to half-past seven 
in the evening, was five cents ; and that trains 



•76 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

were run at those rates upon the two principal 
roads, at intervals of forty-five seconds. It was 
manifest, therefore, that the laborers who eo to 
their work before half-past eight in the morning, 
and who return before half-past seven in the even- 
ing, had no interest in the proposed reduction. 
Had it taken effect, it would have operated almost 
entirely in favor of the wealthier classes, who use 
the roads during the mid-day hours, and would 
have been a severe blow to the surface roads and 
all their employees. 

On the 9th of April, 1883, the Governor sent to 
the Assembly another veto which attracted great 
attention. An Act had been passed amending the 
Charter of the City of Buffalo, the object of which 
was to reorganize the Fire Department of that 
City. Less than three years before the Fire 
Department had been placed under the control of 
three Commissioners, who were appointed by the 
Mayor. The proposed measure abolished the 
Commission and placed the department under the 
control of a Chief, who, with his assistants, was to 
be appointed by the Mayor. The resignation by 
Governor Cleveland of the mayoralty of Buffalo 
had, of course, produced a change in the personnel 
of the city government ; and the plain object of 
the bill was to give the new Mayor control of an 
important department, and to place a considerable 
patronage in his hands. The Governor promptly 
vetoed the bill, and closed his message as follows : 



THE GOVERNORSHIP. 'J*] 

" The purpose of the bill is too apparent to be 
mistaken. A tried, economical and efficient 
administration of an important department in a 
large city is to be destroyed upon partisan grounds, 
or to satisfy personal animosities, in order that 
the places and patronage attached thereto may be 
used for party advancement. 

"I believe in an open and steady partisanship, 
which secures the legitimate advantages of party 
supremacy ; but parties were made for the people, 
and I am unwilling, knowingly, to give my assent 
to measures purely partisan, which will sacrifice 
or endanger their interests." 

This act caused great criticism among those who 
had promoted it ; but it was generally approved in 
Buffalo and in other parts of the State. 

Another very important veto of Governor Cleve- 
land's during his first winter at Albany, was that 
of an act providing for the construction, mainten- 
ance and operation of Street Railways in cities, 
towns and villaofes. 

Great pressure was brought to bear upon Gover- 
nor Cleveland to approve this measure. The late 
amendment to the Constitution had prohibited the 
Legislature from passing special acts granting 
charters to Street Railway Companies, and 
required that a general law should be passed which 
should provide for the organization of such com- 
panies wherever, throughout the State, they might 
be needed. In some of the cities there was a great 



78 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

necessity for additional street railway facilities, but 
it was particularly so in the city of New York, the 
growth of which was seriously retarded by the 
want of them. Under these circumstances it was 
difficult for the Governor to resist the arguments 
in favor of the bill which came from many quar- 
ters, and which were pressed upon him by influ- 
ential friends. He, however, came to the conclu- 
sion that the act contained improper provisions, 
and was passed in the interests of a single locality, 
rather than those of the whole State. He said : 

" In any event, if it is proposed to act under the 
Constitution, there should honestly and fairly be 
accorded to the people the protection which the 
Constitution intended. 

"I think no one can read the peculiar provi- 
sions of this bill, without being convinced that its 
design is more to further private and corporate 
schemes, than to furnish the citizens of the State 
street railroad facilities, under the spirit and letter 
of the Constitution, and within the limits therein 
fixed for the benefit of the people." 

Governor Cleveland's veto messages, during 
his first winter at Albany, together with the mem- 
orandum of objections accompanying the supply 
bill, make a book of more than one hundred 
pages. They furnish an interesting expression 
of his character and methods of thought. They 
are well-written, in a clear and simple style. They 
show how consistently he acted upon the rule he 



THE GOVERNORSHIP. 79 

had laid down. It was his Buffalo rule that public 
office is a trust, and that public moneys are to be 
dealt with as trust-funds are dealt with. As 
Governor he has held rigidly to the same prin- 
ciple, which all sound business men strongly 
endorse. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE GOVERNORSHIP. 

HIS APPOINTMENTS TO OFFICE — LABOR QUESTIONS — CAR CONDUCTOR'S BILL. 

Governor Cleveland applied his favorite rule 
of conduct to the important appointments which 
he had to make soon after taking office. His 
selections were made upon an estimate which he 
had formed of the fitness of the person, and with 
less reference to party considerations. It is true 
that, in all cases where he could, he appointed 
Democrats, but he selected men more with refer- 
ence to their ability to do their work satisfactorily, 
than to their party usefulness. 

He appointed a gentleman who had long been 
the assistant in the Insurance Department to the 
headship of that department. He brought a builder 
from Binghampton, and made him Commissioner 
of the Capitol, and a business man in Buffalo was 
appointed Commissioner of Public Buildings. 
The Superintendent of Public Works whom he 
selected, although a strong and vigorous partisan, 
had had a long and responsible connection with 
the management of the canals. In making these 
appointments Governor Cleveland, of course, set 
80 



THE GOVERNORSHIP. 8 1 

aside candidates who were strongly pressed by 
political leaders, and upon party grounds, but the 
result has well-justified his choice, and the general 
opinion in New York is, that the Governor's 
appointments have contributed to the efficiency 
of the public service. 

His action as to one important office has had 
serious consequences. A former Legislature had 
passed an act providing for the abolishment of the 
Quarantine Commission in the City of New York, 
and permitting the appointment of one Commis- 
sioner. The Governor selected for the place a 
gentleman entirely qualified, but who was a resi- 
dent of Brooklyn, while the duties of the office 
were to be performed in New York, where the 
operations of the Commission had always been 
carried on. The selection of a non-resident for 
so important an office produced a lively feeling 
of discontent among the Democrats of Tammany 
Hall. The Senators who represented that organ- 
ization, were instructed to oppose Mr. Murtha's 
confirmation. This led to a breech between the 
Governor and influential party leaders, and may 
be said to have been the beginning of the opposi- 
tion which he has encountered in his own party. 
The most important places which Governor Cleve- 
land was called upon to fill had been created by 
an Act of the last Legislature, providing for a 
Railroad Commission. This Act had excited great 
interest throughout the State, and particularly in 



82 LIFE OF HROVER CLEVELAND. 

the minds of those who had engaged in what were 
known as the "anti-monopoly" movements. The 
law provided that one of the three Commissioners 
should be nominated to him by certain business 
associations. It also required that another of the 
Commissioners should be a Republican, and that 
one of the Board should have had a practical 
experience in railroad management. These limi- 
tations seriously restricted the Governor's choice. 
The gentleman who was nominated by the business 
associations was not a practical railroad man. The 
Governor thought it desirable that there should 
be a lawyer in the board, and therefore, in select- 
ing the two remaining Commissioners, he chose 
for one Mr. John D. Kernan, of Utica, a son of 
Hon. Francis Kernan, and a lawyer of excellent 
standing, and Mr. William E. Rogers, who was a 
graduate of West Point, had been an officer of 
engineers, and had been engaged in the construc- 
tion and management of railroads, and who filled 
the requirement that one of the appointees should 
be a Republican. All the selections were good, 
and the Board has, during the short period of its 
service, done very important work, and has 
acquired a reputation second only to the long- 
established Massachusetts Commission, 

Governor Cleveland, who was the son of a poor 
clergyman, and was compelled to earn his living 
from the time he was seventeen years old, has been 
charged with a want of sympathy with the laboring 



THE GOVERNORSHIP. 83 

classes. This charge shows a complete misunder- 
standing of his character. From the beginning 
of his career he has been associated with plain 
people, among whom he has lived : sharing their 
feelings, and sympathizing with their purposes. 
He is himself a man of simple life and plain 
manners. It may be doubted whether a public 
man can any where be found less liable to this 
charp^e. He is not, however, a demao-oorue, nor 
accustomed to make loud professions of his devo- 
tion either to the poor or to the rich. 

The Convention which nominated him had been 
greatly influenced by the demands of the laboring 
men, and had adopted the following resolution as 
part of the party platform : 

" Twelfth. We reaffirm the policy always maintained 
by the Democratic party that it is of the first importance 
that labor should be made free, healthful, and secure of 
just remuneration. That convict labor should not come 
into competition with the industry of law-abiding citizens. 
That the labor of children should be surrounded with 
such safeguards as their health, their rights of education 
and their future, as useful members of the community, 
demand. That work shops, whether large or small, 
should be under such sanitary control, as will insure the 
health and comfort of the employed, and will protect all 
against unwholesome labor and surroundings. That 
labor shall have the same rights as capital to combine 
for its own protection, and that all legislation which 
cramps industry, or which enables the powerful to 
oppress the weak, should be repealed ; and, to promote 



84 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

the interests of labor, we recommend the collection of 
statistics and information respecting the improvements, 
needs and abuses of the various branches of industry." 

This declaration had been accepted by the can- 
didate. Mr. Cleveland, in his letter accepting 
the gubernatorial nomination, used the following 
lanpfuaee : 

" The platform of principles adopted by the 
Convention meets with my hearty approval. The 
doctrines therein enunciated are so distinctly and 
explicitly stated that their amplification seems 
scarcely necessitated. If elected to the office for 
which I have been nominated, I shall endeavor to 
impress them upon my administration and make 
them the policy of the State." 

Further on, in the same letter, he says : 

" The laboring classes constitute the main part 
of our population. They should be protected in 
their efforts to assert their rights when endangered 
by aggregated capital, and all statutes on this sub- 
ject should recognize the case of the State for 
honest toil, and be framed with a view of improv- 
inof the condition of the workinor man." 

These pledges have been faithfully kept. The 
Governor signed all but one of the bills which 
were prepared by the direction of the labor organ- 
ization. One of these was an act providing for 
the establishment of a Bureau of Labor Statistics. 
Another was what is known as the "Tenement 
House" bill, which prohibits the manufacture of 



THE GOVERNORSHIP. 85 

cigars in tenement houses. The third was an act 
prohibiting the manufacture of woolen hats in 
the State prisons, penitentiaries, and reform- 
atories of the State. 

The Convict Labor Bill did not reach him dur- 
ing the first session. The question involved in it 
was submitted to the voters of the State at the 
election of 1883, and the popular decision was 
against the continuance of convict labor. In 1884 
the question was again presented to the Governor 
in what is known as the " Comstock Bill," a 
measure which, while it did away with the exist- 
ing system, provided no means whatever for 
the employment of the convicts. It is clearly 
necessary as a matter of discipline, and, indeed, 
as a matter of mercy, that the convicts should be 
kept fully employed. The bill was, also, in sev- 
eral respects, defective, and the Governor sent 
for Mr. Thayer, the President of the State Trades 
Assembly, and suggested that the bill should be 
recalled, and its defects remedied. This was 
, done, and the Governor signed the bill, although 
the most important of its defects still remained, — 
the failure to provide some employment for the 
convicts. The Legislature of last winter, which 
was Republican, did not pass any adequate meas- 
ure upon this important subject, and the result 
is, that when the existing contracts expire, the 
convicts in the prisons and penitentiaries of the 
State will be without employment. 



86 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

Another measure which received Governor 
Cleveland's approval, is known as die " Child 
Contract Bill," which makes it unlawful for the 
managers of Houses of Refuge, or other reform- 
atory institutions, to contract or let out the labor 
of a child committed to their care. 

An act was sent to him, applying only to King's 
and Queen's counties, interfering with the lien 
which a mechanic now has. The bill gave to all 
parties having claims, whether mechanics or not, 
a first lien, thus impairing the preference they 
have under existing laws. This act the Governor 
vetoed. 

The official act of Governor Cleveland which 
has subjected him to the greatest criticism was 
his refusal to sign the bill known as the " Car 
Conductors and Drivers' Bill." The act is in the 
following terms : 

" Section i . On and after the passage of this act it 
shall be unlawful for any officer or agent of any railroad 
corporation in any of the cities of this State, whose cars 
are drawn by horses, to exact from conductors or driv- 
ers employed by them more than twelve hours labor for 
a day's work, and such corporations shall, out of said 
twelve hour's labor, allow such conductors and drivers a 
reasonable time to obtain meals. 

" Sec. 2. Any officer or agent of any such corporation 
who shall violate or otherwise evade the provisions of 
this act shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, pun- 
ishable by a fine not to exceed three hundred dollars, or 



THE GOVERNORSHIP. 87 

imprisonment not to exceed six months, or both fine and 
imprisonment for each offense. 

" Sec. 3. This act shall take effect immediately." 

It was passed at the very close of the session, 
and did not reach the Governor until after the 
final adjournment, so that there was no opportu- 
nity to return It for amendment. A careful con- 
sideration of the measure shows it to have been 
extremely defective. It makes it unlawful for any 
railroad corporation, in any of the cities of the 
State, to exact from conductors and drivers more 
than twelve hours labor for a day's work. It does 
not provide that twelve hours shall be a day's 
work, nor prevent a corporation and its employees 
from agreeing for longer hours of labor. The 
bill was so unskillfully drawn as plainly to be in- 
operative. The Governor, therefore, considering 
the matter simply as a lawyer, refused to sign an 
act which he knew would be useless. 

One of his early acts was to sign a valuable 
measure making the wages or salaries owing to 
employees by any assignor, preferred claims upon 
the assiofnor's estate. 

He also vetoed a bill which permitted savings 
banks and trust companies to invest their funds in 
such securities as might be approved by the super- 
intendent of the Banking Department, the Gov- 
ernor, Comptroller, and the State Treasurer, or a 
majority of them. He said : 

" But I am firmly of the opinion that these insti- 



88 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND, 

tutions are, as their name implies, a place of 
deposit for the savings of those among the poor 
and laboring people who see the propriety of put- 
ting aside a part of their earnings for future need, 
or as the beginning of an accumulation. Such 
depositors are not, and should not be, investors 
seeking, as a paramount purpose, an income by 
way of interest on their deposits. When they 
come to that, there are other instrumentalities 
which should be employed. 

"Absolute safety of the principal deposited is 
what the patrons of savings banks should seek ; 
and any governmental control over these institu- 
tions should, first of all, be directed to that end. 

" I am not satisfied that this is done, when State 
officials, already charged with onerous duties, are 
called to decide upon the value of proposed securi- 
ties, and when the safety of deposits is left to their 
determination, and the care of directors and trus- 
tees, often tempted to speculative ventures, beyond 
their power to resist." 

Any one who will carefully examine his public 
acts will find that he has, as Governor, been most 
careful of the riehts of labor and most watchful 
of the interests of the poor. 

In order that the public may judge what impres- 
sion Governor Cleveland's course has produced 
upon the minds of those most interested, a letter 
lately written by Walter N. Thayer, President of 
the State Trades Assembly, is here given : 



THE GOVERNORSHIP. 89 

" To the Argus : 

" I have been informed that a statement has been pub- 
Hshed to the effect that while in Chicago at the recent 
National Democratic Convention I stated that I could 
pledge the vote of the workingmen, of this and other 
localities, to Governor Cleveland. I wish to state that no 
such expression ever fell from my lips, and that no inter- 
view with me was ever published in which I made such 
a statement. On the contrary, I stated that no man could 
pledge the vote of the labor element of New York State, 
or of any portion of it, to any candidate, nor did any man 
have sufficient iniluence to cause it to be cast against any 
candidate. I stated that if any man pretended to pledge 
the workingmen's vote to any candidate, he did so with- 
out any authority. I stated that I had no authority to 
speak for them on political questions, nor had any one else. 

" I was asked what ray personal preferences were, and 
I said that I preferred Governor Cleveland. When asked 
my reasons, I expressed them as follows : The working- 
men's assembly of this State has, since I have been at the 
head of that organization, succeeded in passing through 
the Legislature the following bills : Abolishing the man- 
ufacture of hats in State prisons; creating a bureau of 
labor statistics ; the tenement house cigar bill (tzciee) ; 
the abolition of convict contract labor; the lien law; and 
the conductors and drivers' bills — seven in all. Of these 
measures Governor Cleveland signed Jive Siud vetoed two, 
viz., the lien law, and the conductors and drivers' bill. 
As to the lien law, it is generally acknowledged now that 
he did us a kindness in vetoing that bill, because, through 
errors of our own in drafting the measure, the bill as 
passed would have been a positive injury to us. The 
conductors and drivers' bill, I think, he should have 
signed. 



90 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

" So the record shows that we have sent to Governor 
Cleveland six perfect bills and he has signed five and 
vetoed one. On this record I am not prepared to con- 
demn him. If the Governor does us five favors and com- 
mits but one error, I feel that he is entitled to my sup- 
port. In addition to the labor measures prepared by our 
organization, Governor Cleveland has signed a bill intro- 
duced by Senator Fassett, which makes workingmen 
preferred creditors in case of assignment or failure of the 
firm or corporation by which they are employed. Rec- 
ognizing the justice of the measure and its great benefits 
to the working class, I asked Governor Cleveland to sign 
it, and he did so without hesitation. So, to sum the 
matter up, he has approved of six bills favorable to our 
interests and disapproved of one. By his record on 
legitimate labor measures I judge him, and on the strength 
of that record I shall support him. I do not wish it 
understood that I am voicing the sentiments or prefer- 
ences of any one but myself I have no authority to 
speak for the workingmen on political subjects. 
" Yours truly, 

" Walter N. Thayer. 

" Troy, July 21, 1884." 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE GOVERNORSHIP. 

CORPORATIONS. 

He has also been charo-ed with beine biased in 
favor of corporations. He has never been con- 
nected with corporate management or interested 
in corporate properties. Even in his profession, 
his connection with them has been incidental and 
casual, nor has he ever been known as, what is 
called, a corporation lawyer. 

In his second annual message to the Legislature, 
the Governor made most important recommenda- 
tions with reference to the management of cor- 
porations. Criticisms upon corporate manage- 
ment are common enough, but practical remedies 
for the evils complained of are not often sug- 
gested. Perhaps the chief evil which our society 
suffers from these institutions, erows out of the 
fact that corporations have been and are the chief 
corrupters of our public life. They furnish a large 
part of the money which is used to corrupt our 
elections, and they furnish all the money which is 
used to corrupt our Legislatures. The creatures 
of the State have become its dangerous enemies, 
and it is not to be wondered at, that public opin- 

91 



92 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

ion with reference to them, assumes a threatening 
character. What remedy can be found for the 
evil ? All the States have passed severe penal 
laws. Everywhere bribery is a crime. The State 
of New York has made it a felony for a person to 
o-ive or to receive a bribe. But the laws are not 
executed. Such offenses are common, but there 
is not an instance in our later history of the suc- 
cessful prosecution and punishment of an offender. 
Political parties have denounced these corruptions. 
The press has inveighed against them and exposed 
them. The pulpit has warned the people against 
them. Public opinion has inflicted upon the 
offenders every penalty which it can command, 
and yet the evil has not been checked nor greatly 
diminished. It has grown to be a serious danger, 
not only to the regular administration of affairs, 
but to the very existence of our system of Gov- 
ernment. 

The problem still is how can this evil be 
checked. It is clear that the first step is to expose 
its methods. Corporate funds, like the moneys of 
the State, are in the nature of trust funds. In 
none of the great corporations do they belong 
exclusively to the directors or trustees who 
administer the corporate affairs. They belong to 
large bodies of citizens scattered throughout the 
community. A railway director, or the trustee of 
a bank, or an insurance company, acts in a fidu- 
ciary capacity, and not in a personal one. 



THE GOVERNORSHIP, 93 

It was thouo^ht that a grreat reform would be 
worked out, if the managers of corporations were 
compelled to expose their accounts, and to pro- 
duce vouchers for every item of their expendi- 
tures. This plan suggested itself to Governor 
Cleveland, before he began the preparation of his 
second message. He determined therefore to 
recommend that the great railway and other 
moneyed corporations, should be compelled to 
report their expenditures to some department of 
the State Government. If they should be 
required to furnish detailed statements of all 
disbursements, clearly showing what use was 
made of the corporate funds, and in all cases pre- 
senting the proper vouchers, it is clear that it 
would be difficult to conceal the use of corporate 
moneys for corrupt purposes. 

The following is an extract from his second 
annual message, dealing with this subject : 

"It would, in my opinion, be a most valuable 
protection to the people if other large corporations 
were obliged to report to some department their 
transactions and financial condition. 

"The State creates these corporations upon the 
theory that some proper thing of benefit can be 
better done by them than by private enterprise, 
and that the aggregation of the funds of many 
individuals may be thus profitably employed. 
They are launched upon the public with the seal 
of the State, in some sense, upon them. They 



94 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

are permitted to represent the advantages they 
possess and the wealth sure to follow from admis- 
sion to membership. In one hand is held a charter 
from the State, and in the other is proffered their 
stock. 

"It is a fact, singular though well established, 
that people will pay their money for stock in a 
corporation engaged in enterprises in which they 
would refuse to invest if in private hands. 

"It is a grave question whether the formation 
of these artificial bodies ought not to be checked 
or better regulated, and in some way supervised. 

"At any rate, they should always be kept well 
in hand, and the funds of its citizens should be 
protected by the State which has invited their 
investment. While the stockholders are the own- 
ers of the corporate property, notoriously they are 
oftentimes completely in the power of the direct- 
ors and managers, who acquire a majority of the 
stock and by this means perpetuate their control, 
using the corporate property and franchises for 
their benefit and profit, regardless of the inter- 
ests and rights of the minority of stockholders. 
Immense salaries are paid to ofificers ; transactions 
are consummated by which the directors make 
money, while the rank and file among the stock- 
holders lose it; the honest investor waits for 
dividends and the directors erow rich. It is 
suspected, too, that large sums are spent under 
various disofuises in efforts to influence lesfislation. 



THE GOVERNORSHIP. 95 

"It is not consistent to claim that the citizen 
must protect himself, by refusing to purchase 
stock. The law constantly recognizes the fact 
that people should be defended from false repre- 
sentations and from their own folly and cupidity. 
It punishes obtaining goods by false pretences, 
gambling and lotteries. 

"It is a hollow mockery to direct the owner of a 
small amount of stock in one of these institutions 
to the courts. Under existing statutes, the law's 
delay, perplexity and uncertainty leads but to 
despair. 

"The State should either refuse to allow these 
corporations to exist under its authority and 
patronage, or acknowledging their paternity and 
its responsibility, should provide a simple, easy 
way for its people, whose money is invested, and 
the public generally, to discover how the funds of 
these institutions are spent, and how their affairs 
are conducted. It should at the same time pro- 
vide a way by which the squandering or misuse 
of corporate funds would be made good to the 
parties injured thereby. 

"This might well be accomplished by requiring 
corporations to frequently file reports made out 
with the utmost detail, and which would not allow 
lobby expenses to be hidden under the pretext 
of legal services and counsel fees, accompanied by 
vouchers and sworn to by the officers making 
them, showing particularly the debts, liabilities^ 



g6 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

expenditures and property of the corporation. 
Let this report be dehvered to some appropriate 
department or officer, who shall audit and examine 
the same; provide that a false oath to such 
account shall be perjury, and make the directors 
liable to refund to the injured stockholders any 
expenditure which shall be determined improper 
by the auditing authorit)^ 

"Such requirements might not be favorable to 
stock speculation, but they would protect the inno- 
cent investors ; they might make the management 
of corporations more troublesome, but this ought 
not to be considered when the protection of the 
people is the matter in hand. It would prevent 
corporate efforts to influence legislation ; the 
honestly conducted and strong corporations would 
have nothing to fear ; the badly managed and weak 
ought to be exposed." 

It would be difficult to find in the record of any 
of our public men so well-considered a plan as 
that here presented, dealing with the glaring evils 
of legislative and official corruption. 

If Governor Cleveland's suggestions should be 
acted upon, all corporate acts would become public 
acts, and a more effective remedy for pernicious 
and dangerous crimes would be found than by the 
enactment of any penal statutes, however severe. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE GOVERNORSHIP. 



MUNICIPALITIES. 



Governor Cleveland's first political office was 
that of Mayor of Buffalo. The first political 
questions with which he had to deal were those 
connected with municipal government. 

The municipalities in New York have long been 
in an unsatisfactory condition. In all of them the 
expenditures are large, taxation is high, and the 
administration wasteful and extravagant. The 
great sums of money raised for municipal pur- 
poses do not accomplish the proper results. The 
cities are generally unclean, badly paved and in 
most instances the public service is costly and 
inefficient. Many persons have come to think 
that a government by universal suffrage cannot 
be successfully applied to municipal affairs. Gov- 
ernor Cleveland, however, was not of this opinion. 
He thought that proper remedies for existing evils 
could be found, and economy and thoroughness 
introduced into the city governments as well as 
into that of the State. 

His plan was to throw upon the people of the 
municipalities the responsibility of self-govern- 

97 



98 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

ment ; therefore, he asked that they should be. 
invested with full powers to deal with their own 
affairs, and that the legislature, after having- 
granted such powers, should cease to interfere 
with the local administration. In his first messaofe 
he said : 

"They [municipal governments] should be so 
organized as to be simple in their details, and to 
cast upon the people affected thereby the full 
responsibility of their administration. The differ- 
ent departments should be in such accord as in 
their operation to lead toward the same results. 
Divided counsels and divided responsibility to the 
people, on the part of municipal officers, it is 
believed, give rise to much that is objectionable 
in the government of cities. If, to remedy this 
evil, the chief executive should be made answer- 
able to the people for the proper conduct of the 
city's affairs, it is quite clear that his power in the 
selection of those who manage its different depart- 
ments should be greatly enlarged." 

And again he said : 

"It is not only the right of the people to admin- 
ister their local government, but it should be made 
their duty to do so. Any departure from this 
doctrine is an abandonment of the principles upon 
which our institutions are founded, and a conces- 
sion of the infirmity and partial failure of the 
theory of a representative form of government. 

"If the aid of the Legislature is invoked to 



THE GOVERNORSHIP. 99 

further projects which should be subject to local 
control and management, suspicion should be at 
once aroused, and the interference sought should 
be promptly and sternly refused. 

"If local rule is in any instance bad, weak or 
inefficient, those who suffer from maladministra- 
tion have the remedy within their own control. 
If, through their neglect or inattention, it falls into 
unworthy hands, or if bad methods and practices 
gain a place in its administration, it is neither 
harsh nor unjust to remit those who are respon- 
sible for those conditions to their self-invited fate, 
until their interest, if no better motive, prompts 
them to an earnest and active discharge of the 
duties of good citizenship." 

The application of these principles to the 
affairs of the cities of the State is a task of o-reat 
difficulty. Ever since the organization of the 
present political parties, there has been a wide 
difference in political opinion between the inhabit- 
ants of New York and Brooklyn and the other 
parts of the State. The cities have been over- 
whelmingly Democratic ; the counties have been 
strongly Republican. During the long period of 
Republican domination the powers of the State 
government were constantly used to weaken the 
Democratic orofanizations in New York and 
Brooklyn To accomplish this, frequent changes 
were made in the charters of the cities. The 
object, generally, was to secure a share of the 



lOO LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

local offices, and a part of what Is called "party 
patronage." 

It is impossible to point out in detail the devices 
which were resorted to, to accomplish these ends, 
but the general result has been clear enough. 
They are without doubt the sources of many 
municipal evils and the chief cause of the failure 
of municipal governments. They have destroyed 
the responsibility of officials. They have given 
opportunities for combination between the corrupt 
men of both parties. They have accustomed the 
people to misgovernment, and made them sus- 
picious as to the sincerity of those who proposed 
a reform. When the Democrats had become 
strong enough to get a share in the government 
of the State, they yet failed to obtain control of 
the Legfislature. 

Jealousy between the city and country has led 
the Legislature, by an unfair apportionment, to 
refuse to the cities their just representation. 
Therefore a Republican majority will usually be 
elected to both branches of the Legislature, even 
when the State has gone Democratic. Thus it 
has happened, that only in two instances during 
the last twenty-five years, has a Democratic Gov- 
ernor found a Democratic Leo^isiature. One of 
these instances was in 1883. 

When Governor Cleveland came to Albany both 
branches of the Legislature were Democratic. It 
was, therefore, hoped that the reforms long waited 



THE GOVERNORSHIP. lOI 

for might be accomplished, and that the principle 
of local self-government might at last be rigidly 
applied to the two great cities. But meanwhile 
serious difficulties had arisen in the cities them- 
selves. In Brooklyn Democratic supremacy had 
been destroyed, and a Republican chosen to the 
mayoralty, who was supported by a considerable 
body of Democrats. In New York the Democ- 
racy had become divided into two organizations, 
both jealous of each other and both striving for 
local control. This condition of affairs has pre- 
vented the work of reform from being accom- 
plished. As respects Brooklyn much has been 
done by the application of the principle of local 
responsibility. 

In New York great changes have been made. 
A system of fees, yielding to certain officials ex- 
travagant emoluments, has been abolished, and 
the power of the Mayor has been vastly increased. 
By these new laws the Mayor of New York has 
been given a power almost without example. He 
is, within his sphere, more powerful than any other 
official in the United States, and it must be remem- 
bered that the sphere is not a narrow one. The 
city government, as respects the magnitude of its 
I operations and its revenues and expenditures, is 
far more important than that of the State, and is 
second only to the Federal Government. In this 
domain the Mayor is now supreme. He has an 
unrestricted power of appointment to most of the 
7 



I02 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

great offices, and will hold all departments of the 
government, with the exception of the financial 
department, entirely in his control. 

This change denotes a great reaction in public 
opinion. During the period which began with 
Jefferson's administration and ended with the out- 
break of the Civil War, political opinion had 
demanded a restriction of executive power. Meas- 
ures of reform were generally measures which 
diminished the function of the executive and which 
widened the field of popular action. By the Con- 
stitution of 1847 the Governor of New York had 
been shorn of all his patronage and most of his 
authority. Offices, both executive and judicial, 
which had hitherto been filled by appointment had 
been made elective. A system of short terms and 
frequent elections had been introduced. It seemed 
as if the experience of more than half a century 
had satisfied the people of their capacity for self- 
government, and had created a desire that there 
should be a direct government by the people, and 
as little as possible a representative one. 

During the last ten years, however, there has 
been a strong tendency in another direction. 
During that time the patronage of the Governor 
has been largely increased. Several important de- 
partments of the State government have been taken 
away from officers elected by the people, and given 
into the hands of officers appointed by the Gov- 
ernor. He has been vested with the extraordinary 



THE GOVERNORSHIP, IO3 

power of vetoing items in the appropriation bills. 
The effect of this change has been to make him a 
part of the Legislature, so that his opinion is fre- 
quently taken upon matters involving the expen- 
diture of public moneys, before a law is passed or 
even introduced. 

Meanwhile, a strong distrust of Legislative 
bodies has grown up. This is shown in the state 
of public opinion with reference to the Legislature 
and to Congress. It would seem as if further ex- 
perience of our system had dissatisfied the people 
with a government based upon Legislative author- 
ity, and had taught them to trust more to execu- 
tives of their own choice, invested with great 
powers and responsible to them alone. 

The question as to which is the better govern- 
ment, one in which the Legislature is the chief, or 
one in which the executive is the chief is an old ques- 
tion. The one is parliamentary government, the 
other is a dictatorship. A wise and patriotic par- 
liament has often rendered oreat service to man- 
kind. An enlightened prince has sometimes aided 
the progress of our race. But it is a strange con- 
clusion that it is safer for a free people to govern 
themselves by dictators periodically chosen, than 
by an open assemblage of representatives who act 
after deliberation and debate. And yet, so de- 
cided is this popular distrust of Legislative methods 
that there is now a strong pressure brought to 
bear, and even from many Democratic quarters, 



I04 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

in favor of an amendment to the Constitution of 
the United States, giving to the President power 
to veto items in appropriation bills. If this power 
were given him he would have an authority never 
yet given to the ruler of a free people. If the 
President of the United States, in addition to 
his power of appointment, had such an enormous 
veto power, there would be little limit to the 
authority which a bold and able man might exer- 
cise. Who can doubt what its effect would be ? 
It maybe said that the United States has not yet 
suffered from the ambition of its public men. This 
source of social and political evils, which in Europe 
has been so prolific, has never caused disturbance ' 
here. But the danger exists here as well as 
there. The passions of men are the same here. 
An American Democracy cannot safely entrust 
unrestricted power to its rulers any more than can 
the citizens of a European State. Neither would 
they escape the consequences of a confidence so 
blind and unreasonable. 

The chano-e which has been made in the munic- 
ipal government of New York is in harmony 
with the drift of public opinion. What the conse-| 
quences of that change are to be cannot certainly 
be predicted, but there are many thoughtful men 
who do not look to the future with the confidence 
which must have inspired those who brought about 
this remarkable alteration in our municipal affairs. 

The Governor's attitude upon this subject is 



THE GOVERNORSHIP. IO5 

worthy of careful attention. His position was an em- 
barrassing one. He had advised the Legislature to 
give self-government to the municipalities. The 
form of government, however, he had not under- 
taken to prescribe, nor is it probable that he had 
formed a definite opinion upon that subject. The 
bill which was presented to him, increasing the 
power of the Mayor, was not one which he had 
advised. It is most likely that when he came to 
act upon it he was largely influenced by the con- 
sideration that the question of the proposed change 
was a Legislative question rather than one for the 
executive to decide. He accompanied his signa- 
ture of the bill with a memorandum, grivino- the 
reasons of his act, which is, in many respects, the 
most thoughtful as it is the most important of his 
State papers. His arguments had a great effect 
upon public opinion, and seemed to put an end to 
doubts, which at the time, were anxiously ex- 
pressed in all parts of the State. It is likely, how- 
ever, that those who adhere upon principle to the 
theory of a government of limited powers, a part 
of which are to be exercised by the Legislature, 
a part by the executive, and a part by the judiciary, 
and in which the powers of each department shall 
be subject to clearly-defined limitations, are not 
convinced that it is wise to invest any public officer 
with an authority so great and irresponsible as that 

f/hich after the ist of January next will be exer- 



I06 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

Instead of introducing changes as to which the 
people of the community had expressed no opin- 
ion, and which never had in any way been sub- 
mitted to them for their judgment, the Legislature, 
had it desired to follow the recommendations of 
the Governor, might have passed an act providing 
for a municipal convention which should have 
power to frame a charter, and for the submission 
of the charter to the people. Had such a charter 
been framed and accepted the city of New York 
would have had its own government created by 
itself If evils of administration had followed, 
its people alone would have been the sufferers. The 
correction of these evils, if the power had been 
placed in their hands, would have been brought 
about by natural and inevitable laws, for if those 
who suffer and have the power to correct public 
wrongs will not do it, it is quite certain that no one 
else can or will. The Message of Governor Cleve- 
land is given here at length, and all who read it will 
recognize the candor and the courage of its 
author : 

" Executive Chamber, 

"Albany, March 17, 1884 

"The interest which has been aroused regard 
ing the merits of this bill, and quite a determined 
hostility which has been developed on the part of 
those entitled to respectful consideration, appear 
to justify a brief reference to the principles and 
purposes which seem to me to be involved in the 



J 




GOVERNOR'S ROOM IN STATE CAPITOL AT ALBANY, N. Y. 



THE GOVERNORSHIP. IO9 

measure, and an incidental statement of the pro- 
cess of thought by which I have been led to 
approve the same. 

" The opponents of the bill have invoked the 
inviolability of the right of the people to rule 
themselves, and have insisted upon the preserva- 
tion of a wise distribution of power among the dif- 
ferent branches of government ; and I have listened 
to solemn warning against the subversive ten- 
dency of the concentration of power in municipal 
rule, and the destructive consequences of any 
encroachment upon the people's rights and pre- 
rogatives. 

" I hope I have not entirely misconceived the 
scope and reach of this bill ; but it seems to me 
that my determination as to whether or not it 
should become a law does not depend upon the 
reverence I entertain for such fundamental prin- 
ciples. 

" The question is not whether certain officers 
heretofore elected by the people of the city of New 
York shall, under the provisions of a new law, be 
appointed. The transfer of power from an elec- 
tion by the people to an appointment by other 
authority, has already been made. 

" The present charter of the city provides that 
the mayor ' shall nominate, and by and with the 
consent of the Board of Aldermen, appoint the 
heads of departments.' 

"The bill under consideration provides that 



no LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

after the ist day of January, 1885, 'all appoint- 
ments to office in the city of New York now made 
by the Mayor and confirmed by the Board of Alder- 
men, shall be made by the Mayor without such 
confirmation.' 

"The change proposed is clearly apparent. 

" By the present charter the Mayor, elected by 
all the people of the city, if a majority of twenty- 
four Aldermen elected by the voters of twenty- 
four separate districts concur with him, may ap- 
point the administrative officers who shall have 
charge and management of the city departments. 

"The bill presented for my action allows the 
Mayor alone to appoint these officers. This 
authority is not conferred upon the Mayor now in 
office, who was chosen without anticipation on the 
part of the people who elected him, that he should 
exercise this power, but upon the incoming Mayor 
who, after the passage of the act, shall be elected 
with the full knowledge on the part of the people, 
at the time they cast their votes, that they are con- 
stituting an agent to act for them in the selection 
of certain other city officers. 

"This selection under either statute is dele- 
gated by the people. In the one case it is exer- 
cised by the chief executive acting with twenty- 
four officers representing as many different 
sections of the municipality ; in the other by the 
chief executive alone. 

"I cannot see that any principle of Democratic 



THE GOVERNORSHIP. I I I 

rule Is more violated in the one case than in the 
other. It appears to be a mere change of instru- 
mentalities. 

" It will hardly do to say that because the Alder- 
men are elected annually, and the Mayor every 
two years, that the former are nearer the people 
and more especially their representatives. The 
difference in their terms is not sufficient to make 
a distinction in their direct relation to the cidzen. 

"Nor are the rights of the people to self-gov- 
ernment in theory and principal, better protected 
when the power of appointment is vested in 
twenty-five men, twenty-four of whom are respon- 
sible only to their constituents In their respective 
districts, than when this power Is put In the hands 
of one man elected by all the people of the 
municipality with particular reference to the exer- 
cise of such power. Indeed In the present condi- 
tion of affairs, if disagreement arises between the 
Mayor and the A.ldermen, the selection of officers 
by the representadve of all the people, might be 
defeated by the adverse action of thirteen repre- 
sentatives of thirteen aldermanic districts. And 
it Is perfectly apparent that these thirteen might, 
and often would, represent a decided minority of 
the people of the municipality. 

"It cannot be claimed that an arrangement 
which permits such a result Is pre-eminently dem- 
ocratic. 

"It has been urged that the proposed change 



112 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

is opposed to the principle of home rule. If it is 
intended to claim that the officers, the creation of 
which is provided for, should be elected, it has no 
relevancy ; for that question is not in any manner 
presented for my determination. And it surely 
cannot be said that the doctrine of home rule pre- 
vents any change by the Legislature of the 
organic law of municipalities. The people of the 
city cannot themselves make such change ; and if 
Legislative aid cannot be invoked to that end, it 
follows that abuses, flao-rant and increasino- must 
be continued, and existing charter provisions, the 
inadequacy of which for the protection and pros- 
perity of the people is freely admitted, must be 
perpetuated. It is the interference of the Legis- 
lature with the administration of municipal gov- 
ernment, by agencies arbitrarily created by legis- 
lative enactment, and the assumption by the law- 
making power of the State, of the rights to regu- 
late such details of city government as are or 
should be under the supervision of local authori- 
ties, that should be condemned as a violation of 
the doctrine of home rule. 

" In any event I am convinced that I should not 
disapprove the bill before me on the ground that 
it violates any principle which is now recognized 
and exemplified in the government of the city of 
New York. 

"I am also satisfied that as between the system 
now prevailing and that proposed, expediency 



THE GOVERNORSHIP. II3 

and a close regard to improved municipal admin- 
istration lead to my approval of the measure. 

"If the chief executive of the city is to be held 
responsible for its order and good government, 
he should not be hampered by any interference 
with his selection of subordinate administrative 
officers ; nor should he be permitted to find in a 
divided responsibility an excuse for any neglect 
of the best interests of the people. 

"The plea should never be heard that a bad 
nomination had been made because it was the 
only one that could secure confirmation. 

"No instance has been cited in which a bad 
appointment has been prevented, by the refusal 
of the Board of Aldermen of the city of New 
York to confirm a nomination. 

"An absolute and undivided responsibility on 
the part of the appointing power accords with 
correct business principles, the application of 
which to public affairs will always, I believe, direct 
the way to good administration and the protection 
of the people's interests. 

"The intelligfence and watchfulness of the 
citizens of New York, should certainly furnish a 
safe guarantee that the duties and powers devolved 
by this legislation upon their chosen representa- 
tive, will be well and wisely bestowed ; and if 
they err or are betrayed, their remedy is close at 
hand. 

"I can hardly realize the unprincipled boldness 



114 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

of the man who would accept at the hands of his 
neighbors this sacred trust, and standing alone in 
the full light of public observation, should willfully 
prostitute his powers and defy the will of the 
people. 

"To say that such a man could by such means 
perpetuate his wicked rule, concedes either that 
the people are vile or that self-government is a 
deplorable failure. 

"It is claimed that because some of these 
appointees become members of the Board of 
Estimate and Apportionment, which determines 
very largely the amount of taxation, therefore the 
power to select them should not be given to the 
Mayor. If the question presented was whether 
officials having such important duties and func- 
tions should be elected by the people or appointed, 
such a consideration might well be urged in favor 
of their election. But they are now appointed, 
and they will remain appointive whether the pro- 
posed bill should be rejected or approved. This 
being the situation, the importance of the duties 
to be performed by these officials, has to do with 
the care to be exercised in their selection, rather 
than the choice between the two modes of appoint- 
ment which are under consideration. 

"For some time prior to the year 1872, these 
appointments were made by the mayor without 
confirmation, as is contemplated by the bill now 
before me. In that year a measure passed the 



THE GOVERNORSHIP. I I 5 

Legislature giving the power of appointment to 
the Common Council. The chief executive of 
the State at that time was a careful and thorough 
student of municipal affairs, having large and 
varied experience in public life. He refused to 
approve the bill, on the ground that it was a 
departure from the principle which should be 
applied to the administration of the affairs of the 
city and for the reason that the Mayor should be 
permitted to appoint the subordinate administra- 
tive officers without the interference of any other 
authority. 

"This reference to the treatment of the subject 
by one of my distinguished predecessors in office, 
affords me the opportunity to quote from his able 
and vigorous veto message which he sent to the 
Legislature on that occasion. He said: 

"'Nowhere on this continent is it so essentially 
a condition of good government as in the City of 
New York, that the chief executive officer should 
be clothed with ample powers, have full control 
over subordinate administrative departments, and 
so be subject to an undivided responsibility to 
the people and to public opinion for all errors, 
short comings and wrong doings by subordinate 
officers.' 

"He also said: 

"'Give to the city a chief executive, with full 
power to appoint all heads of administrative depart- 
ments. Let him have power to remove his 



I 1 6 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

subordinates, being required to publicly assign his 
reason.' 

"He further declared: 

'"The members of the Common Council, in New 
York, will exert all the influence over appoint- 
ments which is consistent with the public good, 
without having the legal power of appointment, 
or any part of it, vested in their hands.' 

"In 1876, after four added years of reflection 
and observation, he said, in a public address, when 
suggesting a scheme of municipal government: 

"'Have, therefore, no provision in your charter 
requiring the consent of the Common Council to 
the Mayor's appointments of heads of depart- 
ments ; that only ope7is the way for dictation by 
the Council or for bargains. This is not the way 
to get good men nor to fix the full responsibility 
for mal-administration upon the people's chosen 
prime minister.' 

"These are the utterances of one who, during 
two terms had been Mayor of the City of New 
York and for two terms Recorder of that city; 
and who for four years had been Governor of the 
State. 

"No testimony, it seems to me, could be more 
satisfactory and convincing. 

"It is objected that this bill does not go far 
enough, and that there should be a re-arrange- 
ment of the terms of these officers ; also that some 
of them should be made elective. This is undoubt- 



THE GOVERNORSHIP. II7 

edly true ; and I shall be glad to approve further 
judicious legislation supplementary to this, which 
shall make the change more valuable and surround 
it with safeguards in the interests of the citizens. 
But such further legislation should be well digested 
and conservative, and, above all, not proposed for 
the purpose of gaining a mere partisan advantage. 

"I have not referred to the pernicious practices 
which the present mode of making appointments 
in the City of New York engenders, nor in the 
constantly recurring bad results for which it is 
responsible. They are in the plain sight of every 
citizen of the State. 

"I believe the change made by the provisions 
of this bill gives opportunity for an improvement 
in the administration of municipal affairs ; and I 
am satisfied that the measure violates no ri^ht of 
the people of the locality affected, which they now 
enjoy. But the best opportunities will be lost 
and the most perfect plan of city government will 
fail, unless the people recognize their respon- 
sibilities and appreciate and realize the privileges 
and duties of citizenship. With the most carefully 
devised charter, and with all the protection which 
legislative enactments can afford them, the people 
of the City of New York will not secure a wise 
and economical rule until those havino- the most 
at stake determine to actively interest themselves 
in the conduct of municipal affairs. 

" Grover Cleveland." 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE GOVERNORSHIP. 

SECOND MESSAGE AND GENERAL OFFICIAL COURSE. 

When Governor Cleveland had parted with 
his first legislature, public opinion with reference 
to him had undergone a great change. He was 
no longer an unknown nor an untried man. He 
had, of course, displeased many people. His 
action both in vetoing and signing bills had 
affected important interests, and it was impossible 
for him to escape criticism. There can, however, 
be no doubt that the general judgment of dis- 
interested people was favorable to him, and he 
was recognized by all as a firm and courageous 
man who took great pains to find his duty, who 
came to his conclusions deliberately, and acted 
upon them without fear. 

So industrious a governor had never been seen 
in Albany. No hard-working lawyer has ever 
devoted himself to business with an industry 
greater than he had shown in doing the public's 
work. He came to his room in the capitol at nine 
"o'clock in the morning, and he seldom left it, 
except to take his meals, before midnight. He 
examined every bill with a close and critical 

ii8 



THE GOVERNORSHIP. II9 

attention, nor ever decided upon one with whose 
provisions he was not perfectly famihar. The 
same care was taken with all other official acts. 
The result has been not only an excellent per- 
formance of the public service, but the Governor 
has, himself, received a severe discipline and a 
wide education from his labors. His second 
annual message is a thorough and able docu- 
ment, and shows that he had made himself famil- 
iar with the concerns of all departments of the 
State government, and was able to present 
important suggestions for the increase of their 
efficiency. 

To every department he had given a proper 
share of his time, thougrht and attention. 

The building of a new capitol has been a work 
of great embarrassment. It was begun under 
the expectation that it could be built for about 
four million dollars. It is not yet finished and 
has cost sixteen millions. For a longf time it was 
in charge of a commission appointed by the Gov- 
ernor and Senate, In 1865 the constitution of 
the commission was changed, and the duties of 
Capitol Commissioner was devolved upon three of 
the State officers, the Lieutenant Governor, the 
Attorney-General and the Auditor of the Canal 
Department. A change of administration had 
led to a change of plan, but no changes had 
brought about any diminution of cost. Nor was 
that possible in view of the scale upon which the 



I20 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

buildinof had been beorun. Unlike most of his 
predecessors, Governor Cleveland at once 
evinced a ereat interest in this work. He 
expressed a desire that it should be completed 
during his term ; that the delays which had been 
frequent should no. longer be permitted, and that 
the appropriations should be sufficient to carry it 
continuously forward. He was willing to become, 
himself, directly responsible for it. Accordingly, 
he assented to a radical change in the administra- 
tion of the building by which future construction 
was placed under the charge of a single commis- 
sioner. 

The insane asylums and the other charitable 
institutions have had the advantage of his watch- 
fulness and care. He has insisted upon economy 
in expenditures, but he has constantly shown that 
he has taken a personal as well as an official 
interest in their welfare. 

The National Guard of New York has long 
been a subject of importance to the Common- 
W'calth. It has been brought to a state of 
discipline quite unusual, and may be favorably 
compared with any body of volunteer soldiery. 
From the first, Governor Cleveland showed great 
interest in the oreanization. He selected his staff 
with an express reference to the promotion of its 
efficiency, and he has given a very unusual amount 
of his time and attendon to Its affairs. 

He approved two measures relating to the sol- 



THE GOVERNORSHIP. 121 

cliers of the late war. By one of these acts Union 
soldiers and sailors are given preference for 
employment upon the public works. By another, 
provision is made for the completion of the 
records of the New York volunteers during the 
war, and for their safe keeping.* 

In a community so large as New York, and con- 
taining so many great cities, the pardoning power 
becomes one of the governor's most important 
prerogatives. During Governor Cleveland's term 
this power has been exercised with extraordinary 
thoughtfulness and discretion. It is impossible 
here to present the details of his action in the 
performance of this duty, but any one who 
chooses to examinf^ the memorandum which always 
accompanies a pardon will find that every case 
has been thoroughly examined, and that his 
opinion has been formed after judicially consider- 
ing all the facts and circumstances. 

So, too, in the performance of the more painful 
duty of deciding upon charges against public offi- 
cers, the Governor has a considerable power of 
removal. This power applies to sheriffs, district 
attorneys, and some other officials. He has 
always exercised it after great deliberation and in 
a way which showed a strong sense of public duty. 
A remarkable instance was the case of the District 
Attorney of Queens County, against whom charges 
had been made of malfeasance in office. It is not 
in any way important here to recite these charges. 



122 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

The most interesting matter connected with this 
subject is the time and manner of the Governor's 
action. An election was pending, and the accused 
officer had been nominated by the Democrats for 
the State Senate. If he were removed from office 
it was quite clear that his Republican opponent 
would be elected. The Governor, however, did 
not hesitate to act by reason of these political 
considerations, and having made up his mind, he 
issued the order of removal on the 29th of Octo- 
ber, about one week before the election. 

Among the measures passed during his first 
winter was an Act providing for the appointment 
of a Commission to select and set-apart such lands 
as might be found to be necessary for the preser- 
vation of the scenery at Niagara Falls. All the 
islands immediately above the falls, and the lands 
upon the main shore, had early in the century 
been sold to private citizens. Some of them have 
been devoted to manufacturing purposes, the 
forests upon the main land have been cut down, 
and a process of deterioration has begun, which, 
if continued, will soon destroy the charm and 
interest which Niagara has had, as an object of 
natural beauty and sublimity. 

It had been some time in contemplation to pre- 
serve Niagara by creating a State reservation, by 
removing unsightly constructions and restoring, 
so far as practicable, the scenery to its original 
character. The efforts in this direction had been 



I 



THE GOVERNORSHIP. I 23 

thwarted by the action of Governor Cornell, who 
had indicated that if the proposed measure were 
passed, he would refuse to sign it. Governor 
Cleveland, however, showed a generous disposi- 
tion to the undertaking, and encouraged the pas- 
sage of the bill. The final step for the completion 
of this work will probably be taken at the next 
session of the Legislature, and if the recommend- 
ations of the Commissioners are approved. Gov- 
ernor Cleveland's administration will have won the 
regard of the lovers of nature in all parts of the 
world. 

One important function which Governor Cleve- 
land has exercised, may be said to be original 
with himself, and is shown in the frequency with 
which he has returned defective measures to the 
Legislature for correction. It cannot be said that 
this had not been done before but it had never 
been done so often nor with such thoroughness. 
It was his custom, when examining bills which 
were presented to him for signature, not only to 
consider whether they were constitutional or not, 
but to carefully determine whether they accom- 
plished the objects for which they were intended, 
and also whether their provisions could not be 
improved. He has frequently returned defective 
bills to the Legislature with an elaborate commu- 
nication not only pointing out defects but explain- 
ing how they could be remedied. This work 
devolved upon him a great labor, but has been of 



124 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

high value to the State. Defects in the drawing 
of laws are a source of constant difficulty, and of 
litigations which occupy a large part of the time 
of the courts. 

Among the Important measures which he was 
unable to sign on account of the defective 
condition in which it came to him, was what has 
been known as The Tenure of Office Bill, being 
an Act fixing and regulating the tenns of office 
of certain public officers in the City of New York. 
The reasons which the Governor s^ave forvetoino- 
this measure were so conclusive that the author 
of the bill heartily approved of the Governor's 
action, which was also tommended by the journals 
in New York, which had at first expressed dissat- 
isfaction with his action. 

When Governor Cleveland entered upon his 
office he was convinced of the necessity of a 
reform in the Civil Service, especially as to the 
selection of subordinate officers. The Demo- 
cratic party in New York had been committed to 
this policy by declarations repeatedly made by its 
State Conventions. One of the first acts of the 
Democratic Legislature of 1883 was the passage 
of a bill establishino- a Board of Civil Service 
Commissioners, who were to devise a system for 
the reform of the service, not only In the depart- 
ments of the State government, but also In the 
municipalities of the State. The Commission 
was made up by the appointment of John Jay, 



THE GOVERNORSHIP. I 25 

Augustus Schoonmaker and Henry A. Richmond, 
This system has been put in operation in respect 
to all State officers and institutions. 

The Adirondack wilderness stretches over a 
mountainous region about one hundred miles in 
length and sixty in width, in the northeastern 
corner of the State. This country was, until 
lately, in its primeval state ; its forests were full 
of eame, and its beautiful lakes and rivers 
abounded with fish. It was the occasional resort 
of adventurous travelers. But twenty years ago 
a journey into the Adirondacks was in the nature 
of an exploration, and was undertaken only by 
those who were willing to' endure some hardships 
and to encounter some dangers. 

These conditions have lately changed. The 
mountains have been made accessible, and are 
now resorted to by crowds of summer tourists, 
and hotels have been built upon the principal 
lakes. The State has, from time to time, sold 
many of the lands, and the forests have been cut 
off from laro^e areas. The ereat rivers of the 
State take their rise in this region, — the Hud- 
son, the Mohawk and the Black River. Their 
waters supply the Erie Canal and the upper 
channels of the Hudson, and are essential to the 
commerce of the State. The rapid destruction 
of the northern woods endangers the water 
courses by exposing them to disastrous inunda- 
tions and to protracted droughts. Plans for the 



126 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

preservation of the forests have been much dis- 
cussed by the pubhc press and by the New York 
Chambers of Commerce and other pubhc bodies. 

In his second message the Governor treated 
this subject at length, and under his inspiration 
the Legislature has taken cautious action, and a 
Commission of Inquiry has been appointed. 

No thoughtful person, who has read this brief 
summary of Mr. Cleveland's career as Governor, 
will fail to notice how he has grown with time 
and the occasion. The hand which took the 
reins of power hesitatingly has become accus- 
tomed to them, and now holds them in a firm and 
skillful grasp. 

A speech which the Governor made at the Albany 
High School contains some observations which 
must have been derived from his own experience. 
It is here given both as an expression of his opin- 
ions upon important subjects, and by reason of 
its biographical value. He said : 

" I accepted the invitation of your principal to visit 
your school this morning with pleasure, because I 
expected to see much that would gratify and interest me. 
In this I have not been disappointed. But I must con- 
fess that if I had known that my visit here involved my 
attempting to address you, I should have hesitated, and 
quite likely have declined the invitation. 

" I hasten to assure you now that there is not the 
slightest danger of my inflicting a speech upon you, and 
that I shall do but little more than to express my pleasure 



THE GOVERNORSHIP. 12/ 

in the proof I have of the excellence of the methods and 
management of the school, and of the opportunities 
which those who attend have within their reach of 
obtaining a superior education. 

" I never visit a school in these days without contrast- 
ing the advantages of the scholar of to-day with those of 
a time not many years in the past. Within my remem- 
brance even, the education which is freely offered you 
was only secured by those whose parents were able to 
send them to academies and colleges. And thus, when 
you entered this school very many of you began where 
your parents left off. 

" The theory of the State in furnishing more and better 
schools for the children, is that it tends to fit them to 
better perform their duties as citizens, and that an 
educated man or woman is apt to be more useful as a 
member of the community. 

" This leads to the thought that those who avail them- 
selves of the means thus tendered them are in duty 
bound to make such use of their advantages as that the 
State shall receive in return the educated and intelligent 
citizens and members of the community which it has the 
right to expect from its schools. You, who will soon be 
the men of the day, should consider that you have 
assumed an obligation to fit yourselves by the education, 
which you may, if you will, receive in this school, for the 
proper performance of any duty of citizenship, and to 
fill any public station to which you may be called. And 
it seems to me to be none the less important that those 
who arc to be the wives and mothers should be educated, 
refined and intelligent. To tell the truth, I should be 
afraid to trust the men, educated though they should be, 
if they were not surrounded by pure and true woman- 



128 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

hood. Thus it is that you all, now and here, from the 
oldest to the youngest, owe a duty to the State which can 
only be answered by diligent study and the greatest 
possible improvement. It is too often the case that in 
all walks and places the disposition is to render the least 
possible return to the State for the favors which she 
bestows. 

" If the consideration which I have mentioned fails to 
impress you, let me remind you of what you have often 
heard, that you owe it to yourselves and the important 
part of yourselves to seize, while you may, the oppor- 
tunities to improve your minds, and store into them, for 
your own future use and advantage, the learning and 
knowledge now fairly within your reach. 

" None of you desire or expect to be less intelligent or 
educated than your fellows. But unless the notions of 
scholars have changed, there may be those among you 
who think that in some way or manner, after the school 
day is over, there will be an opportunity to regain any 
ground now lost, and to complete an education without 
a present devotion to school requirements. I am sure 
this is a mistake. A moment's reflection ought to con- 
vince all of you that when you have once entered upon 
the stern, uncompromising and unrelenting duties of 
mature life, there will be no time for study. You will 
have a contest then forced upon you which will strain 
every nerve and engross every faculty. A good educa- 
tion, if you have it, will aid you, but if you are without 
it, you cannot stop to acquire it. When you leave the 
school you are well equipped for the van in the army 
of life, or you are doomed to be a laggard, aimlessly and 
listlessly following in the rear. 

" Perhaps a reference to truths so trite is useless here. 



THE GOVERNORSHIP. I 29 

I hope it is. But I have not been able to forego the 
chance to assure those who are hard at work that they 
will surely see their compensation, and those, if any such 
there are, who find school duties irksome, and neglect or 
slightingly perform them, that they are trifling with serious 
things and treading on dangerous ground." 



CHAPTER X. 

THE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION. 

DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES, MCDONALD, RANDALL, THURMAN, MORRISON, 
CARLISLE, FIELD, BAYARD. 

It was inevitable that immediately after his 
election men should begin to consider Governor 
Cleveland as a probable candidate for the Presi- 
dency. There are powerful circumstances which 
always tend to the nomination of a New Yorker 
by the Democratic National Convention. As long 
as the party is out of power these influences are 
likely to control. The vote of the State in the 
electoral college is necessary to success, and the 
wealth of the State must be relied upon to pro- 
vide for the expenses of a campaign. It has 
happened, therefore, that since i860 all the 
Democratic candidates for the Presidency, except 
one, have been New Yorkers, or residents of 
New York. For these reasons it is hardly pos- 
sible for any one to come into special prominence 
in the politics of the State without being looked 
upon as a presidential possibility. This was 
particularly so when a citizen came into the gov- 
ernorship by a majority of nearly two hundred 
thousand. 
130 



THE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION. I3I 

The Governorship of New York had before 
been the theatre where great national reputation 
was won. In that office Horatio Seymour had 
gained a fame wider and more tenderly cherished 
than any Democrat of his time. He had never 
held any federal employment whatever. All his 
public life had been passed in the service of the 
State, and two terms as governor had made him 
the leader of his party, the recognized advocate 
of its cause, and, in 1868, its nominee for Presi- 
dent. 

In the Governorship, Samuel J. Tilden had 
made himself the most influential public man of 
the day. He took office during General Grant's 
second term at a time when public thought was 
o^iven to federal affairs, and when Washino-ton 
was the centre of political activities. Within six 
months after Governor Tilden came to Albany, 
that city had become the political centre, and he 
the most prominent man in public life. His 
ingenious, fertile and subtle intellect soon devised 
interesting and far-reaching policies most attrac- 
tive to thoughtful men, especially to those who 
were influenced by the existing discontents, who 
sought a reform in the administration of affairs 
and aspired to higher and more intellectual 
political life. His career at Albany brought him 
a triumphant nomination to the Presidency, and 
carried him successfully through one of the most 
vehement contests ever known in this country. 



132 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

The fraudulent devices by which the will of the 
people was defeated had indeed deprived him of 
the office to which he had been chosen, but had 
brought to him a great accession of strength in 
the popular sympathy and respect. The state of 
his health had prevented him from accepting a 
re-nomination in 1880, but during the past year 
there arose a demand, quite universal, for his 
nomination in 1884. All obstacles created by 
personal hostilities, all jealousies, all aspirations 
of rivals, and all interests of locality disappeared 
before this vehement and commanding opinion. 
Had he been permitted to yield to the popular 
wish, he would have been nominated by his party 
without a ballot, and with a unanimity not seen in 
our history since the second administration of 
Jackson. But it had long been known to intimate 
friends that the resolve of 1880 was unchanged, 
and that his health would not permit him to take 
an office the duties of which are so onerous and 
exacting. It was known therefore, at least to the 
better instructed public men in New York, that 
Governor Tilden would not be a candidate. His 
candidacy was not an obstacle to any other 
aspirant. This was not, however, generally 
believed by the people and even up to within 
a few weeks before the Convention the belief was 
common that Mr. Tilden would accept the nom- 
ination, and many delegates to the National Con- 
vention were chosen as his supporters. 



THE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION. I 35 

It was by no means clear to the politicians of 
New York what should be done. Difficulties had 
arisen in the way of Governor Cleveland's nom- 
ination. In 1863 the Republicans had elected 
one of their candidates on the State ticket. Mr. 
Purcell, the editor of the Rochester Union, had 
been the Democratic candidate for Secretary of 
State in 1881 and had been defeated with the rest 
of the ticket, all the Democratic nominees having 
also been defeated, except one. In 1883 he was 
again a candidate, but his renomination was 
opposed and defeated by those who were sup- 
posed to have acted in accordance with the wishes 
of the Governor. This incident produced a con- 
siderable discontent, which showed itself at the 
election by the defeat of Mr. Maynard, who had 
been nominated in place of Mr. Purcell. All the 
other Democratic candidates were elected, but 
both branches of the Leg-islature were lost. 

This untoward event the first year of Mr. 
Cleveland's governorship, was considered by 
many as most ominous, and as putting him out of 
the question as a Presidential candidate. But as 
time advanced and the meeting of another Legis- 
lature again brought his official acts to the public 
notice and consideration the adverse opinions 
seemed to diminish. 

Mr. Roswell P. Flower, his rival for the Gov- 
ernorship, came openly forward as a Presidential 
candidate in all parts of the State. Even before 



136 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

the State Committee had issued its call for a Con- 
vention, constituencies began to elect delegates 
in Mr. Flower's interest. General Slocum was 
also spoken of, but his name soon came to be 
more frequently associated with the Vice-Pres- 
idency, for which he would doubtless have been 
nominated had a western man been chosen for the 
first place. Mr. Abram S. Hewitt was also con- 
sidered, and there were many reasons which 
favored his selection. There are few men in the 
public life of the country, who equal him in attain- 
ments, and in the variety and value of his services. 
But the opinion of the State steadily tended 
towards Governor Cleveland, with a daily increas- 
ing strength, retarded mainly by the doubts which 
existed as to Mr. Tilden's intentions. 

During all this time, Governor Cleveland occu- 
pied a passive attitude. He took no steps what- 
ever to promote his nomination. To those who 
approached him, even his most intimate friends, 
he was either silent or expressed a preference that 
the matter should be dropped. He told the 
writer that the discussion of his name was merely 
a temporary incident, and that he did not think 
there was any strong desire for his nomination. 
He steadily refused to have any of the usual 
means employed. He declined to have letters 
written in his behalf, or to have any efforts made 
to secure the election of delegates in his favor 
from other States. He, in terms, forbade the 



THE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION. 1 37 

raising of any money, or the employment of any 
agents, or the sending out of any biographical or 
other hterary matter, to direct attention or influ- 
ence opinion. He said, "If my party friends in 
New York choose to present my name to the 
National Convention, and if the delegates from 
other States think well of it, and give me the 
nomination, I will accept it, and if elected, will do 
my duty as well as I can- ; but I will not myself 
do, nor will I permit any one whom I can control 
'to do, anything to influence party action upon the 
subject." 

The candidacy of Governor Cleveland was 
greatly strengthened by the situation of other 
public men in the party. For a time it seemed 
as if the Western States would be substantially 
united in favor of Mr. McDonald, lately United 
States Senator from Indiana, but as the time for the 
nomination approached, it became manifest that 
the movement in his favor would not be sufficiently 
strong to control Ohio and Illinois, nor even a 
majority of the delegations from the Northwest. 
There was some division, of opinion in his own 
State, and notwithstanding the adhesion of Mr. 
Hendricks to his cause, it can hardly be doubted 
that there were a larofe number of Democrats in 
Indiana who preferred Hendricks to McDonald, 

In Illinois was General Palmer, an eminent 
lawyer and a distinguished officer during the Civil 
War, and also Colonel William R. Morrison, the 
9 



130 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

Democratic leader of the House. Colonel Mor- 
rison has remarkable qualifications for the Presi- 
dency, and a career which has been full of inter- 
esting incident. He was a soldier at Buena Vista, 
and carried a musket in the ranks of the Illinois 
regiment all through that day. He was the first 
Union officer wounded at Donelson, and was 
shot through the body while leading his regiment 
in the first assault upon the fort. He has been 
in the House since 1863, and knows the Govern- 
ment, and its affairs, as well as any man in the 
country. He is a frank and generous man, an 
open foe, a tenacious friend. He has always 
maintained the ancient doctrines of his party, and 
has never yielded to the heresies which have 
sometimes swept other men from their feet. His 
record as to public expenditures, the tariff, and 
the currency, has been without defect. His elec- 
tion would have brought into the White House 
an old-fashioned Democrat, plain in manners, 
prompt in speech, with an abundance of shrewd 
sense and dauntless courage. But for reasons 
not well understood outside of the State, neither 
Colonel Morrison nor General Palmer could bring 
a united delegation from Illinois. 

Mr. Randall was presented by Pennsylvania 
early in the spring. He had afterwards lost a 
great opportunity. He organized and led a suc- 
cessful opposition to the efforts his party was 
making to reduce taxation. Had he been willing 





■w^^^^^ 



THE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION. I4I 

to take a practicable and obvious course ; had he 
assented to the party measures, which he could 
easily have shaped, and led the Democrats of the 
House in their attacks upon the oppressive and 
unnecessary taxation, he would have rendered, a 
great service to his country, and have become the 
representative of a wise and beneficent policy. 
In such a case, his nomination would have been 
probable. But the course which, acting doubtless 
upon honorable motives, he preferred to take as 
to the most important measure of the session, 
made it certain that his nomination would cause 
serious divisions in the party. Mr, Carlisle, the 
Speaker of the House, had gained great reputation 
by his conduct during the session, but the condition 
of party opinion upon the tariff, and perhaps the 
fact that he was a resident of Kentucky, formerly 
a slave State, soon made his nomination unlikely. 
In the State of Ohio, opinion was greatly 
divided. The defeat of Mr. Pendleton, who was 
a candidate for re-election to the Senate, and 
whose public career had been distinguished by his 
devotion to the reform of the civil service, had 
produced serious discontent among the Demo- 
crats of the State. Judge Thurman occupied such 
a position, and his career had been so eminent, 
that it was supposed that all the Democrats of 
Ohio would support his candidacy. This expecta- 
tion, however, proved unfounded. The delegation 
refused to present his name. 



142 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

Stephen J. Field, of California, a Justice of the 
Supreme Court of the United States, who had in 
former years been considered in connection with 
the Presidential office, was brought into prom- 
inence by the decision of the Supreme Court 
upon the question of the power of Congress, in 
time of peace, to make treasury notes a legal 
tender. This decision had carried what are 
called the implied powers of Congress much 
farther than had ever before been admitted o^ 
even suspected. It confers upon Congress not 
only all that can be directly implied from the lan- 
guage of the Constitution, but also all that can 
well be imagined. To many persons this decision 
seems to make a complete change in our system, 
and if it is correct it will, doubtless, materially 
diminish the respect for the Constitution, almost 
amounting to veneration, which has hitherto been 
felt for it by the people. 

Justice Field delivered an opinion of great 
learning, directness and eloquence, dissenting 
from the new doctrines. He stood alone in the- 
court, and instantly in all parts of the country 
public thought turned towards him as one who 
might fitly lead the Democratic forces. 

But the American people have always shown 
themselves unwilling to select a President from 
the bench of the Supreme Court. Several 
eminent judges have, in the past, been candi- 
dates for the nomination, but in no important ^ 



THE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION. 1 43 

instance has any of them succeeded. This is, 
doubtless, due to a strong- disposition to hold the 
judiciary as set apart from political strifes, and 
as, in a sense, disqualified for political office. In 
the case of Judge Field this disposition was, per- 
haps, strengthened by an opposition to him in his 
own State, which was carried so far that the State 
Convention, in terms, refused to permit the pre- 
sentation of his name. 

The most formidable competitor, outside of 
the State of New York, for the Presidential nom- 
ination, was Thomas F, Bayard, Senator from the 
State of Delaware. Mr. Bayard has been in the 
Senate ever since his early manhood. During 
his lonof career he has been identified with the 
best approved public measures. All tendencies 
in favor of reform inclined towards him. He 
was acceptable to those classes of men in the 
Republican party who were offended at party 
methods, and who sought a reform of administra- 
tion. He is personally most attractive. He has 
a winning charm of conversation and of manner. 
His life is in all respects honorable. He is sur- 
rounded by able and influential friends, who not 
only respect him, but regard him with warm affec- 
tion. No one doubts his fitness for the place; 
indeed, if such a question could be submitted to 
and be decided by those best able to judge, he 
would, doubtless, be selected for the Presidency 
almost without dissent in his party. 



144 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

The difficulties, however, which He in his way 
appear to be serious ones. He was born in what 
was called a slave State, although there were but 
few slaves in Delaware at the breaking out of the 
Civil War. In 1861 he delivered a speech at 
Dover, in Maryland, which it is thought would 
subject him to serious opposition in the Northern 
States on account of the sympathy with the South 
w^hich is betrayed. This speech is extremely 
moderate in tone, and when one considers the 
time of its delivery, and Mr. Bayard's youth, and 
the influences which surrounded him, its modera- 
tion is remarkable. To one who remembers the 
condition of public opinion in June, 1861, the 
excitement almost reaching frenzy, which filled 
both North and South, the calm and patriotic 
expressions of the Dover address disclose a 
character of unusual temperance, and with a self- 
control not often found in one so young, nor in a 
time so exciting. 

But whether rightfully or not, the Dover 
speech, taken in connection with Mr. Bayard's 
Southern birth, has hitherto prevented his selec- 
tion. The delegates from the Southern States, 
themselves, are never willing to incur what they 
consider to be the risk of his nomination, and his 
own State of Delaware is so small that it has little 
power to assist him in a Convention. It is greatly 
to be regretted that Mr. Bayard rests under such 
disabilities, for no one doubts that he would bring 



> 


. ^.^ 


s 




c 




pi 


■ 


r 




?ci 




> 




■^ 


■-^'.\s 


O 


>K' '"^i;^^^^ • 


> 




r 


:■: •■ ^X^^H 


r 


1 ^ 





THE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION. 1 47 

to the Presidential office the completest qualifica- 
tions, a mind thoroughly trained in affairs, and a 
character quite Washingtonian in its symmetry. 
It will be a strange and harsh result if so slight a 
circumstance shall permanently deprive him of 
our highest civic honor. 



CHAPTER XL 

THE POLITICAL SITUATION. 

THE MORRISOiN BILL — THE STATE CONVENTION. 

The Presidential question had been greatly 
affected by the course of events in Congress. 
The result of the session had been such as to leave 
the Democracy without a clearly defined political 
issue. A demand for reform hardly presents a 
question of politics, but must always depend upon 
professions which can be made as easily by one 
party as by the other. 

When Congress met it seemed to be easy to 
make an issue of the most absorbing character. 
The former Cono-ress had refused to reduce taxa- 
tion. The public revenues had swollen to enorm- 
ous dimensions, and were largely in excess of the 
necessities of the Government. One would say 
that it would be difficult to present to a practical 
and business people like the Americans, a subject 
more likely to interest them than the abolition of 
unnecessary taxes. They were descended from a 
people who had deposed and beheaded their king 
because of o-rievances about taxation. Their 
ancestors, when poor and few in numbers, had for 
148 



THE rOLITICAL SITUATION. 1 49 

a similar reason revolted and wacred an eiofht 
years' war. 

It was easy to cut off seventy millions of 
taxes. The Democrats in the House set them- 
selves to this work with considerable confidence 
of success. The only doubt was, as to whether 
the Republican Senate would concur. But if the 
Senate should refuse, the issue would be sent to 
the country under the most favorable conditions 
for Democratic success in the elections. It was 
not thought that the Republicans would walk into 
so open a trap. But the Republicans at once 
refused to consent to the reduction of taxation. 
They seemed to think that high taxes were of the 
essence of orooci ofovernment. 

Mr. Blaine, early in the session proposed, in a 
public letter, that the taxes upon distilled spirits 
should be made permanent, and that when no 
longer needed by the Federal Government, the 
revenues should be distributed among the States. 
Such a measure would destroy the last vestige of 
State independence. Relieved of the necessity 
of providing for local purposes, the State Legis- 
latures would soon disappear, and the government 
of the country become a consolidated one. 

The measures contemplated by the Democrats 
were designed to effect a reduction of between 
sixty^ and seventy millions, of which about one- 
half was to be taken from the tariff and the remain- 
der from internal taxes. The first of these meas- 



150 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

ures, that relating to the tariff, was known as the 
Morrison Bill, and was reported to the House as 
soon as it could be matured by the committee. 

A party caucus approved it. The Democrats 
had a majority so large as to be able to carry any 
measure they supported. But some of their num- 
ber determined, on one ground and another, to 
oppose the bill, and the question of its considera- 
tion was saved from defeat by a narrow majority. 
After a debate lasting three weeks, at the stage 
of the proceedings when, under the rules, amend- 
ment was for the first time possible, a Demo- 
cratic Representative from Ohio moved that the 
enactinor clause be stricken out. This motion had 
to be decided without debate and was carried by 
a majority of two, forty Democrats voting with the 
Republicans in favor of the motion. 

This action prevented any political issue from 
being based upon a reform of the tariff and the 
reduction of taxes. It is believed that it is the 
only instance in history in which a party out of 
power, and soliciting the favor of the people, 
has deliberately refused to reduce unnecessary 
taxes. 

It is commonly said that Democratic defeats 
during the past fifteen years have been due to the 
blunders of the Democrats themselves. But this 
is perhaps a superficial opinion. The cause of the 
defeats may more easily be found, in the lack of 
that unity of opinion which must exist in order that 



THE POLITICAL SITUATION. I5I 

a voluntary association, like a political party, shall 
have coherency and discipline. 

The absence of any political issue between the 
parties was favorable to the nomination of a can- 
didate who had not been connected with Federal 
affairs. 

The Republican Convention, however, supplied 
the country with another issue. The nomination 
of Mr. Blaine presented a serious question as to 
his fitness. He had been charged with gross mis- 
conduct, and even in his own party there were 
many who believed the charges to be true. His 
nomination was followed by a great defection, and 
amonor the dissenters were men of the hiehest 
political and personal consideration. Most prom- 
inent among them were George William Curtis, 
the editor of Harpers Weekly, and Carl Shurz, 
a German, who has played a distinguished part in 
our affairs. 

Mr. Blaine's nomination made it essential that* 
the Democratic candidate should antaofonize him 
as to the matters which subjected him to reproach. 
The New York State Convention was appointed to 
meet on the i8th of June, and the week before 
Mr. Tilden broke the silence which up to that 
time he had preserved, and published a letter, 
addressed to Mr. Manning, the Chairman of the 
State Committee, announcing to the public his 
intention, long privately known, not to accept the 
Presidential nomination. 



152 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

This event brought matters to a crisis. The 
name of Governor Cleveland was immediately 
presented to the people by an article in the 
Albany Argiis, to which paper is given the char- 
acter of the party organ. It was received with 
favor in all parts of the country, and particularly 
so by the Republican journals which had refused 
to support Mr. Blaine, and by the citizens whom 
they represented. In some of the States there 
was at once a stronof drift of sentiment in favor of 
Cleveland, but in New York there sprung up a 
vigorous and resolute opposition to him. The 
Nciij York S2U1, the paper 01 the widest circulation, 
and by far the most influential of the journals 
which advocate Democratic doctrines, refused to 
accept his candidacy, and the Democrats who 
meet in Tammany Hall also refused to accept it. 
To this opposition was added that of certain of the 
labor and other industrial organizations, which 
seemed to have accepted the leadership of 
General Butler. 

The State Convention met at Saratoga Springs 
under circumstances of considerable doubt as 
to what its action would be. There was a ques- 
tion before the Convention as to the represent- 
ation which should be given to Tammany Hall. 
The Tammany men were dissatisfied with that 
which had been granted them in 1882-3, and 
demanded to be at least placed on an equality 
with the county Democracy. After some diffi- 



ta 
w 

2: I 
> 

g I 

2; I 

§ I 

pa I 





THE rOLITICAL SITUATION. 1 55 

ciilty, this demand was yielded to, but it was 
thought to be wise, by those who had Governor 
Cleveland's interests in hand, not to present 
to the Convention the direct question of his 
candidacy. In 1876, the State Convention had 
formally presented Governor Tilden to the 
consideration of the National Convention. At 
Saratoga, it was resolved not to follow that 
precedent 

The Convention confined its action, so far as 
respected the Presidential nomination, to the 
selection of delegates, and to the passage of the 
usual resolution, authorizing a majority of the 
delegation to throw the vote of the State as a 
unit. Immediately upon its adjournment, a 
serious doubt was raised as to whether the dele- 
gation was, in fact, in favor of Governor 
Cleveland. Two of the delegates at laro-e were 
open opponents. The Brooklyn politicians, who 
had for years acted with what is known as the 
Tilden wing- of the party, had, at the State Con- 
vention, stood apart from their old allies. The 
eight representatives of the Tammany Democracy 
were opponents of the Governor. Mr. Purcell 
was in the delegation, and was earnestly against 
him ; and other delegates, whose number, how- 
ever, was uncertain, were either favorable to Mr. 
Flower, or friends of Senator Bayard. Indeed, it 
was confidently asserted, that when the delegation 
came to meet at Chicago, it would be found that 



156 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

a majority of its members were in favor of Mr. 
Bayard's nomination. 

These circumstances gave rise to an angry 
public discussion almost without precedent, and 
yet amidst all the clamor, it was clearly observ- 
able that general opinion gradually tended 
towards Governor Cleveland. Mr. Cleveland 
may be said to have grown up since the war. 
His whole career was subsequent to that event, 
and none of his public actions had had any rela- 
tion to the causes of difference which had pro- 
duced the war, or which were involved in the 
controversies that came after it had ended. He 
had therefore no connection with the first issues 
which had divided parties in the past. There 
was against him no such obstacle as Mr. Bayard's 
Dover speech, and like Mr. Bayard his character 
and career stood in marked contrast with that of 
Mr. Blaine. Besides, it was easy for the Repub- 
licans who had voted for him in 1882 to do so again. 
In a sense he had been their Governor. They 
were in part responsible for him, and were satis- 
fied with him. During all this discussion, down to 
the very last, Mr. Cleveland's attitude was 
unchanged. He had accepted the idea of his 
candidacy, and no longer remonstrated with the 
friends who were advocating It, but he turned 
neither to the rieht nor to the left. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE CONVENTION AND NOMINATION. 

THE UNIT RULE — PLATFORM. 

It does not lie within the scope of this sketch 
to present a detailed account of the proceeding 
at Chicago. A National Convention is always an 
interesting expression of the political life of this 
country. No such thing exists or can exist any- 
where else. It meets under conditions which 
require immediate action. The work it has to do 
must necessarily be done quickly, and with little 
discussion. So numerous an assemblage cannot 
long be kept together. It therefore presents a 
theatre where action must be prompt and decisive, 
and where men of strong characters, who are 
able to deal with great masses of people, and at 
once to master important affairs, find a fit field 
for their powers. 

It is always an able body, far more able than 
Congress ; but the Convention which assembled 
at Chicago on the 8th of July contained a very 
unusual number of important men. General 
Butler, who had already received the nomination 
of at least two political bodies, was a member of 

157 



158 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

the Massachusetts delegation. Judge Thurman 
was in the delegation from Ohio. Colonel Mor- 
rison and General Palmer were both representa- 
tives from Illinois, and Mr. Hendricks, who had 
been Mr, Tilden's rival in 1876, and had been his 
party's candidate that year for Vice-President, 
was at the head of the Indiana delegation. With 
him was associated Mr. Vorhees, almost unequaled 
for the power and effectiveness of his popular 
oratory. The Governor of Connecticut headed 
the delegation from that State. Mr. Vilas of 
Wisconsin, an orator who has lately risen to dis- 
tinction, was the permanent President. The dele- 
gation from New York contained Mr. Belmont, 
Mr. Cooper, Mr. Manning, Mr. Magone, Mr. 
Hewitt, Mr. Thompson, Mr. Travers, Mr. Kings- 
ley and other men of mark. A large number of 
the members of the House of Representatives 
were delegates, and several of the Senators. 
Nearly all the prominent Democrats in both 
Houses of Congress were present either as par- 
ticipants, or as witnesses to the proceedings of 
the body. 

The opposition to Governor Cleveland at Chi- 
cago was carried on with the greatest vigor, under 
the leadership of Mr. Kelly and General Buder, 
assisted by the friends of Mr. Bayard and Senator 
Thurman. Every inch of ground was contested. 
Their first effort was to abrogate the rule by 
which a majority of a State delegation was per- 



THE CONVENTION AND NOMINATION. 1 59 

mitted to cast the entire vote of the State as a 
unit. 

This rule was of ancient origin. The Demo- 
cratic National Conventions from the first estab- 
lished two somewhat peculiar rules of procedure. 
One of these requires that a nomination must be 
made by the votes of two-thirds of the delegates. 
The other recognizes the right of the State to 
authorize the majority of its delegation to throw 
its entire vote as a unit upon a!l questions. The 
latter of these rules was made the point of attack. 
It had before been subjected to assault. In the 
National Convention of 1844 an effort was made 
to chancre it. That effort had caused a lone 
debate, in which the ablest Democratic leaders 
of that time took part ; but the Convention then 
refused to change the rule. 

New York has always granted this power to 
the majority of its delegation, but the power 
has not been always used. On a memorable 
occasion, those who had it in their hands refrained 
from using it. In 1852 William L. Marcy, of 
New York, was a candidate for the Presidential 
nomination. The majority of the delegation, led 
by Horatio Seymour, was friendly to him, but 
there was a considerable opposition in the delega- 
tion. The session of the Democratic Convention 
of that year was very protracted. The vote of 
New York was divided between Mr. Marcy and 
other candidates. Several times the delegates 



l60 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

from other States, in particular those from Vir- 
ginia, went to the New York leader, and told him 
that if the united vote of New York were thrown 
for Marcy they would come to his support. At 
one time such a movement would doubtless have 
produced Marcy's nomination. But the majority 
of the delegation was not willing to coerce their 
colleagues. For that reason the vote of the State 
was never united. 

Governor Seymour, speaking of these events a 
few years ago, said : " It is quite likely that I 
there made the greatest error of my life. Had 
Governor Marcy been the President, we might 
have avoided the repeal of the Missouri Compro- 
mise, and the fatal consequences of that measure. 
But, I could not bring myself to throw the vote 
of a representative against his will." 

It is thought that the discussion at Chicago will 
lead to the abrogfation of the unit rule. But there 
are certain considerations, not obvious at first, in 
favor of its continuance. The unit rule is an 
expression of the anatomy of the State. In a 
Democratic Convention the States and not the 
districts are represented. It is they who act and 
not the individual delegates. Besides, the rule 
adds to the power and influence of the large 
States. If the rule should be broken New York 
would not be more potent in a National Conven- 
tion than New Enofland. 

This question was presented at Chicago by 



THE CONVENTION AND NOMINATION. l6l 

some of the delegates from New York, who were 
powerfully seconded by gentlemen from other 
States. Had they succeeded the result of the 
Convention micrht have been different. The 
motion to change the unit rule was, of course, 
opposed by the friends of Governor Cleveland. 
After a vicrorous debate the motion was defeated 
by a decisive vote, and it then became quite certain 
that Governor Cleveland's nomination could not 
be prevented. 

The subject of the platform was also a matter 
of unusual interest. The action of Congress had 
strengthened the difference which had always 
existed in Democratic ranks upon the subject of 
tariff taxation. The Committee on Resolutions was 
so organized that, as to the tariff, it was quite equally 
divided. Mr. Watterson of Kentucky, Mr. Hewitt 
of New York, and Col. Morrison of Illinois were 
members of the Committee and represented the 
tariff reformers. General Butler and Mr. Con- 
verse of Ohio represented those who wished to 
recognize the principle of protection. Mr. Manton 
Marble, who was the author of the platform of 
1876, a public document of unusual merit, and the 
declaration of principles upon which the party 
had succeeded at the elections for the only time 
in a quarter of a century, was present in Chicago 
and actively assisted the Committee. 

The work of the Committee was finally accom- 
plished without compromising the historic position 



1 62 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

of the party upon the subject of the tariff The 
Democratic platform, a thoughtful and elaborate 
document, is presented in the later pages of this 
volume. 

Even after the vote upon the unit rule it was 
not certain that two-thirds of the Convention were 
in favor of Cleveland. Therefore, an effort was 
made to concentrate all the opposition to him 
upon some one of the candidates. It was thought 
that, if that could be done, a compact body of 
more than one-third could be organized who 
would so protract the proceedings as to compel 
the majority to assent to the nomination of some 
other person. This effort, however, proved unsuc- 
cessful, and upon the second ballot Governor 
Cleveland received the nomination by a vote oi 
much more than two-thirds of the deleofates in 
attendance. 

Mr. Cleveland's cause at Chicago was cham- 
pioned by skillful politicians. Most of them came 
from the large cities. They were accustomed to 
act together, and to encounter opposition vigor- 
ously, but without unnecessary temper. Many 
of them were young men with the dash and 
energy of youth. Prominent among them were 
the Lieutenant-Governor, Mr. Hill ; the Comp- 
troller, Mr. Chapin ; and Mr. Apgar, a politician 
of unusual sagacity and experience. 

After a session of only four days the Conven- 
tion adjourned, amidst expressions of unbounded 



THE CONVENTION AND NOMINATION. 1 63 

enthusiasm and confidence, having chosen as the 
Democratic candidates : 

FOR PRESIDENT, 

GROVER CLEVELAND, 

OF NEW YORK. 
FOR VICE-PRESIDENT, 

THOMAS A. HENDRICKS, 

OF INDIANA. 

When he was nominated, Governor Cleveland 
was in his office at Albany. He had been there 
all the morning busily at work. A message came 
announcing the nomination. He interrupted his 
work long enough to receive the congratulations 
of some friends, and to direct that the news 
should be telephoned to his sister, and then 
turned to his desk and papers. 

He has ever since treated the matter as if it 
was not a personal concern. He spends his days 
in his office as he has been accustomed to do. 
No introduction to him is needed. No one is 
excluded from his room. He will not take any 
part in the canvass. He will live in the Gov- 
ernor's house, and attend to his duties. If it is 
the people's will that he shall be elected, it is for 
them to express their purpose. He will do noth- 
ing to influence their judgment. He can do 
nothing more. They must decide upon the prin- 
ciples for which he stands, and upon his life and 
character. 



164 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

On the 29th of July, the last event connected 
with his nomination took place. According to 
custom, the National Convention appointed a 
committee to inform the candidates of their selec- 
tion. This ceremony took place in the drawing- 
room of the Governor's house at. Albany. The 
candidate was surrounded by members of his 
family, by the sisters to whose support he had 
given the scanty earnings of his youth, and by 
many of his personal and political friends. The 
speech which he delivered in reply to the address 
of the Chairman of the Committee is in these 
words : 

''Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee : 
"Your formal announcement does not, of course, 
convey to me the first information of the result 
of the Convention lately held by the Democracy 
of the Nation, and yet, when, as I listen to your 
message, I see about me representatives from all 
parts of the land of the great party which, claim- 
ing to be the party of the people, asks them to 
intrust to it the administration of their govern- 
ment, and when I consider under the influence of 
the stern reality which the present surroundings 
create, that I have been chosen to represent the 
plans, purposes and the policy of the Democratic 
party, I am profoundly impressed by the solemnity 
of the occasion, and by the responsibility of my 
position. Though I gratefully appreciate it I do 



THE CONVENTION AND NOMINATION. 1 65 

not at this moment congratulate myself upon the 
distinguished honor which has been conferred 
upon me, because my mind is full of an anxious 
desire to perform well the part which has been 
assigned to me. 

"Nor do I at this moment forget that the rights 
and interests of more than fifty millions of my 
fellow-citizens are involved in our efforts to eain 
Democratic supremacy. This reflection presents 
to my mind the consideration which more than all 
others gives to the action of my party in conven- 
tion assembled its most sober and serious aspect. 
The party and "its representatives which ask to be 
entrusted at the hands of the people with the 
keeping of all that concerns their welfare and 
their safety, should only ask it with the full appre- 
ciation of the sacredness of the trust, and with a 
firm resolve to administer it faithfully and well. I 
am a Democrat because I believe that this truth 
lies at the foundation of true Democracy. I have 
kept the faith, because I believe if rightly and 
fairly administered and applied. Democratic doc- 
trines and measures will insure the happiness, 
contentment and prosperity of the people. 

"If, in the contest upon which we now enter, we 
steadfastly hold to the underlying principles" of 
our party creed, and at all times keep in view the 
people's good, we shall be strong, because we are 
true to ourselves, and because the plain and 
independent voters of the land will seek by their 



1 66 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

suffrages to compass their release from party 
tyranny, where there should be submission to the 
popular will, and their protection from party cor- 
ruption where there should be devotion to the 
people's interests. These thoughts lend a conse- 
cration to our cause, and we go forth, not merely 
to gain a partisan advantage, but pledged to 
give to those who trust us the utmost benefits 
of a pure and honest administration of National 
affairs. No higher purpose or motive can stimu- 
late us to supreme effort, or urge us to continuous 
and earnest labor and effective party organization. 
Let us not fail in this, and we may confidently 
hope to reap the full reward of patriotic services 
well performed. I have thus called to mind some 
simple truths, and, trite though they are, it seems 
to me we do well to dwell upon them at this time. 
I shall soon, I hope, signify, in the usual formal 
manner, my acceptance of the nomination which 
has been tendered to me. In the meantime I 
gladly greet you all as co-workers in the noble 
cause." 



CHAPTER XIII. 

GENERAL ESTIMATE OF FITNESS OF CHARACTER. 

In conclusion, it seems appropriate that some- 
thing should be said by way of an estimate of 
Grover Cleveland's fitness for the great office to 
which he has been nominated. 

It is said that he is without the necessary expe- 
rience and training. But in this particular, his 
deficiencies, if they exist, are not without pre- 
cedent. Neither Jackson, nor Taylor, nor Lincoln, 
nor Grant, had had as much civil experience as 
Cleveland has had. Jackson's short service in 
Congress is hardly remembered. Lincoln's only 
official training had been a single term in the 
House, and a man may be half a life-time in the 
House without being subjected to the discipline 
which a year in the Governorship of New York 
will give. Taylor and Grant, when they came to 
the Presidency, had never been in any kind of 
civil employment. 

As has been seen, Cleveland went into official 
life when he was only twenty-six years old. The 
District Attorneyship of a large city is an admirable 
school for a public man, and gives a wide experi- 
ence of men and life. He was afterwards, for 

167 



I 68 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

three years, the Sheriff of the county, and, on the 
I St of January next, he will have had three years' 
experience in high executive office. The two 
years in the Governorship has been a period of 
severe labor. The subjects presented to him 
have been more varied and more perplexing than 
most matters upon which a President has to act. 
He has had the anomalous power of vetoing 
items in appropriation bills. He has thus been a 
part of the Legislature, and has been called upon 
to consider the propriety of measures before they 
were introduced. 

The Legislature of New York deals with a 
greater variety of interests, and with more compli- 
cated topics than Congress. It regulates all the 
concerns of a community more populous and 
far more wealthy than England in the reign of 
Elizabeth. The laws passed at Albany are more 
than double the volume of those passed in Wash- 
ington. But in Washington, legislation is more 
carefully done. The work of committees is more 
thorough. The New York Legislature sits but 
four days in a week, while Congress quite gener- 
ally sits every week day. The President is never 
perplexed by imperfect measures. No one can 
recall an instance in which he has returned a bill 
with suggestions for its correction and amend- 
ment, while, as has been seen, this is a frequent 
occurrence at Albany. The President has more 
time for deliberation than the Governor, for the 



ESTIMATE OF FITNESS OF CHARACTER. 1 69 

bills which are presented to him are few in 
number, and he is never thrown under the stress 
of four or five hundred bills, precipitated upon 
him at once, and to be disposed of in thirty days, 
as is always the case at the close of the Session 
at Albany. Besides, the President has the assist- 
ance of a Cabinet, which he may choose from the 
most experienced and eminent men in the country. 
The Governor has no such assistance. The heads 
of departments in Albany are in no sense his 
adjutants. They are often of different politics, and, 
during Governor Cleveland's first year, all of the 
State offices, save one, were filled by Republicans. 
The opinion is here deliberately expressed, that 
two years in the Governorship are, to say the 
least, quite equal, as a school of Statesmanship, to 
the same time in the Presidency. Would any 
one doubt, that a man who had served two years 
as President, as acceptably as Mr. Cleveland has 
as Governor, would be a fit Presidential candi- 
date ? 

The qualifications of a public man are not neces- 
sarily, nor often, proportioned to the length of his 
official career. The history of the United States 
and England is full of examples of men who have 
passed long lives in office and in useful and honor- 
able service, but who never became fitted for the 
highest employments. A statesman must be 
judged by what he has done, not by the length of 
his service. Judged by this test, can there be a 



lyO LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

doubt that Mr. Cleveland will meet the require- 
ments of the Presidency? The most essential 
of those requirements are qualities of character 
and not intellectual ones. A President should 
have courage, integrity, firmness and self-reliance. 
Governor Cleveland has shown all these traits in 
more than one conspicuous instance. 

At the present time it is of special importance 
that a Democratic President should have a certain 
independence of party. The election of a Demo- 
crat can only be brought about by a great change in 
the public opinion of the Northern States. Thous- 
ands of Republicans must become willing to vote 
for a Democrat. It is not likely that they will be 
willing to vote for one who is, in the strictest 
sense, a partisan, and who will go into office with 
violent partisan feelings and purposes. This last 
qualification Governor Cleveland certainly pos- 
sesses. He has clearly shown that he knows 
where the line is which separates duty to country 
from duty to party, and he has never failed to rise 
to the higher level when the occasion called him 
there. 

At the same time, no one can well administer 
the affairs of our Government without the assist- 
ance of a party organization. It is through parties 
that men come to an agreement as to policies, 
through them they announce their principles and 
their intentions. A neglect of party obligations 
would therefore be the betrayal of a trust. These 



ESTIMATE OF FITNESS OF CHARACTER. I71 

obligations should rest with special force upon the 
conscience of a Chief Magistrate who stands before 
the world, the incarnation of his country's honor, 
and whose betrayal of his party's trust would sap 
the foundations of the State, and set up an evil 
example to the world. 

Grover Cleveland has been a steadfast Demo- 
crat. He has shared all the fortunes of his party, 
and has always been found under its standard, 
whether the hour was one of victory or defeat. 
His administration will be Democratic in form 
and in substance. 

To these qualifications he adds a steady, sub- 
stantial and vigorous mind. He expresses him- 
self in nervous and intelligible terms. All his 
utterances can be understood by plain unlettered 
people. He takes a firm hold of every subject 
which comes before him, and looks at it from 
every side, until he understands it completely. 
He is ready to take advice, and often asks for it, 
but he makes up his own mind, and then acts not 
only with courage, but without misgiving. 

He is a genuine American — the product of 
our own soil and institutions. He has never been 
even a visitor to foreign countries. In his veins 
ilows the blood of EnofHshmen, of Irishmen, and 
of Germans. These are the races who have 
peopled the United States and made them great. 
He represents them all. He has a strong man's 
love for the land where he was born, and in which 



172 LIFE OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 

his parents are buried. His kindred have lived 
here many generations ; they have been soldiers, 
and farmers and mechanics, and preachers of the 
Gospel. His ancestry is the best that can be 
found, an ancestry of frugal, laborious and patriotic 
men and women. 

The writer of these pages has known Grover 
Cleveland well ever since he came to Buffalo, 
knows all the main events of his life, and all the 
features of his mind and character, and has no 
doubt that, if elected to the Presidency, he will fill 
the office honorably, and most usefully to his 
country. 



A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

OF 

Thomas A, Hendricks, 

Nominee for the Vice-Presidency of the 
United States. 

BY 

W. U. HENSEL. 



"He is a good Democrat; a reputable man." — New 
York Times, Rep. 

"Since the war commenced I have uniformly said 
that the authority of the Government of the United 
States is not questioned in Indiana, and that I regarded 
it as the duty of the citizens of Indiana to respect and 
maintain that authority, and to give the Government an 
honest and earnest support in the prosecution of the 
war, until, in the providence of God, it may be brought 
to an honorable conclusion and the blessings of peace 
restored to our country, postponing until that time all 
controversy in relation to the causes and responsibilities 
of the war. No man will feel a deeper solicitude in the 
welfare and proud bearing of Indiana's soldiery, in the 
conflict of arms to which they are called, than my- 
self." — Thomas A. Hendricks, April 24th, 186 1. 

"An honest jurist, an able and incorruptible states- 
man, and a wise politician." "His record as Senator, 
Representative, Commissioner, and State Legislator is 
pure and untarnished." — JVew York Tribune, July 22d, 
1872. 

"We need to have the books in the Government 
ofiices opened for examination." — Thomas A. Hendricks, 
July I2th, J884. 




oy^ 6^ A/^ 



\^ 



CHAJ'TER I. 

THE OFFICE OF VICE-PRESIDENT. 

" Gentlemen, I do not know whether the framers of the Constitution 
had in view the two Kings of Sparta, the two Consuls of Rome, or the 
two Suffetes of Carthage when they formed ii — -the one to have all the 
power while he held it, and the other to be nothing. Gentlemen, I feel 
great difficulty how to act. I am possessed of two separate powers — the 
one in esse, the other in fosse. I am Vice-President. In this I am nothing, 
but I may be everything. But I am President also of the Senate. \\ hen 
the President comes into the Senate what shall I be? I wi>h, gentlemen, 
to think, what I shall be." — John Adams, First Vice-President, to the 
Senate. 

THERE have been Vice-Presidents and 
Vice-Presidents. John Adams held sec- 
ond place to Washington and succeeded 
him in the Executive Chair. Thomas Jefferson 
followed Adams' succession. Aaron Burr's treach- 
erous abuse of the generous confidence which 
made him the choice of Jefferson's friends for the 
Vice-Presidency did not secure for him the end of 
his ambition; neither could it be punished by his 
exclusion from the next place of prominence in 
the Federal Government. But it led to that 
change of the fundamental law which, in the en- 
actment and adoption of the Twelfth Amendment, 
empowered the electors to choose directly the 
Vice-President instead of bestowing that office 
upon the second highest candidate for President. 
The differences arising out of the bitter quarrel 

177 



178 Z//:i5 OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

that ensued between Burr and the Jeffersonians 
were the beginning of that downward career 
which cuhninated in Burr's crime and ended in his 
poverty, neglect, and death. Under Jefferson's 
second Administration and the first of Madison's 
terms, Georcre CHnton brouQ^ht to the Vice-Presi- 
dency an honored name, worth and fit dignity ; 
Elbridge Gerry, elected Vice-President to Madi- 
son, died suddenly in the second year of his term ; 
Daniel D. Tompkins, who went into office and 
out of it with Monroe, in the uneventful era of 
good feeling, was a more conspicuous statesman 
before than after he became Vice-President ; John 
C. Calhoun, previously distinguished as a Repre- ' 
sentative and by brilliant cabinet service, became 
Vice-President by the mutual consent of the fierce 
Adams and Jackson factions in the electoral strug- 
gle of 1824, but differed almost throughout his 
Administration from the President, and was an 
active party to the combination which defeated 
him. Personal and political alienation and a re- 
vival of the old troubles between Monroe's War 
Secretary and the chief captain of the Seminole 
War soon produced a far more violent rupture 
between Jackson and Calhoun than had ever oc- 
curred between Adams and Calhoun, ensuing in 
the latter's antagonism of Van Buren, followed 
with Van Buren's own political ascendency, first 
as Vice-President, then as President, to be followed 
with his defeat, even after Calhoun had become 



THE OFFICE OF VICE-PRESIDENT. 



1/9 



reconciled to his support. Richard M. Johnson, 
the Van Buren candidate for Vice-President, failed 
of election in the Electoral College, but was 
chosen by the House. It was not until 1841 that 
John Tyler realized to the country the importance 
of the Vice-Presidential succession, and by his es- 
trangement from the party which had made Har- 
rison President taught the politicians that they had 
not, by the policy pursued in the selections they 
made for Vice-President, avoided the dangers 
which it had been sought to obviate by the consti- 
tutional amendment of 1S03. 

Since then it has happened, within a period no 
longer than the space of a generation, that three 
Vice-Presidents have succeeded to vacancies 
caused by death, and none of them has attained, 
by election, the office to which he came by acci- 
dent, though all aspired to It. Fillmore was chosen 
Vice-President by the same electors who made 
Taylor President, but his signature to the Fugitive 
Slave Law, approved by a vote of 227 to 60, In 
the next National Convention of his party, lost 
him a renomlnatlon. William R. KInof's Ions? 
career of usefulness and distinction was crowned 
with election to the Vice-Presidency ; and a grace- 
ful grant by Congress gave him permission to 
take the oath of office in Cuba, where, on March 
4th, 1853, he was sojourning for his health. 

John C. Breckenrldge's name was a fit one to be 
associated with any Democratic candidate and to 



l8o ^^-^^ ^^ THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

be honored by election in 1856. He was the 
nominee of one wing of his party, in its fatal dis- 
sensions of i860, for the highest place. Hamlin's 
defeat for renomination, in 1864, was due to a 
spirit of concession to the Southern Loyalists, 
and resulted in the Johnson succession to the 
murdered Lincoln, with all the train of political 
complications that followed. Colfax's defeat for 
renomination as Vice-President with Grant is as- 
cribed to the hostility of the newspaper corres- 
pondents, whose righteous wrath he had provoked. 
Mr. Wheeler " elided through the official routine " 
of Hayes' term, to be submerged by the obscurity 
which has settled upon the whole of that Admin- 
istration ; while Arthur has shared the fate of Fill- 
more — in seeing his policy almost unanimously 
indorsed by his party and himself rejected. 

I have thought it wise, for reasons which may 
or may not be obvious, to preface the biographi- 
cal sketch of the Democratic nominee for Vice- 
President of 1884 with this brief review of those 
who have been chosen to the place, their relations 
with their Presidents and to their parties, and 
especially to note the peculiar tendency of par- 
ties at all times to balance their tickets by select- 
ing candidates for second place upon such con- 
siderations as would almost certainly foreshadow 
a departure of administration in the event of their 
constitutional succession during the term for 
which the President had been chosen. 



THE OFFICE OF VICE-FRESIDEXT. j c^ ^ 

Despite the fact that In the present event Mr. 
Hendricks, without any forethought and certainly 
by no action of his own, was at one time during 
the proceedings of the Convention which nomi- 
nated Mr. Cleveland his principal competitor in the 
balloting for first place, his nomination to the 
second was effected by widely different influences, 
and was directed by other considerations than those 
which have so often produced the fateful results 
of party dissensions following Vice-Presidential 
successions. 

In tracing, however briefly, his career, his pri- 
vate character and his public life, his steady 
progress in popular affection and esteem, his un- 
exampled continuance of leadership in one of the 
great parties of a great State — alternating control 
of it — his course as Senator and Governor, at all 
times a faithful representative of the people and 
a conservator of sound public Interests, I hope to 
be able to demonstrate the propriety and fitness 
and wisdom of his nomination, and to present an 
example of Integrity of conduct and purity of 
character and sound judgment to those who be- 
lieve these qualities are essential to the adminis- 
trators of government, and to show to the aspiring 
youth of the country that in the end it Is the 
genius of common sense which conquers and con-, 
verts obstacle into opportunity. 



CHAPTER II. 

ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFE. 

IN the settlement of Pennsylvania, where were 
nourished the springs which fed streams of 
emigration and pioneer enterprise reaching to 
every part of the West, Northwest, and South there 
were no better strains of blood than the Irish and 
Scotch, or that in which these commingled and 
which came to be called — not without dispute as to 
the propriety of it — " Scotch-Irish." The people 
thus called had above all things " grit," and they j 
displayed it in social life, in religion and politics, in ' 
war and council ; they bred men and women of 
full stature ; they built churches and colleges ; 
they were true to their homes and hospitable to 
the stranger ; they educated their children ; they 
were patriots and politicians ; they could fight and 
pray. The more thrifty and cautious German often 
succeeded to their inheritance of the soil, but they 
le/t the imperishable stamp of their individuality 
wherever they settled, and they wrote their names 
yvith steel and flint on the records of the time. 

Out in the Ligonier Valley, Westmoreland 

Cqunty, Western Pennsylvania, there is a stream 

called " Hendricks' Run," which flows into the 

Conemaugh ; thence its waters reach the Alle- 

182 



ANCESTR V AND EARL Y LIFE. \ 8 -^ 

gheny, and finally find dieir way to the Gulf. 
To one of the water powers of that brook, which 
murmured 

" Under moon and stars 
In brambly wildernesses," 

the ancestors of Thomas A. Hendricks chained 
their wheel more than a century ago, and their name 
abides with the stream while men come and go. 
On the father's side his people were from the North 
of Ireland. Four years before the Colonies had 
sworn to be free, theThomson family, of pure Scotch 
blood, settled in the Cumberland Valley, Penn- 
sylvania, near Shippensburg, in Cumberland 
County, whence John Thomson sent back to Scot- 
land that famous address setting forth the advan- 
tages of climate, soil, and opportunities in the New 
World which brought so many of his countrymen 
hither, to heavily tax but never exhaust his hos- 
pitality. Of that family was Alexander Thomson, 
a jurist of renown. President Judge of the Franklin- 
Somerset-Fulton-Bedford district, in which office 
he preceded Judge Black, and after his retirement 
from it his library became the law school of Mar- 
shall College, an honored seat of learning then at 
Mercersburg, a dozen miles or more from Cham- 
bersburg, Franklin County, where he lived. A son 
of that Judge Thomson, Vice-President Frank 
Thomson, of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, 
illustrates in the management of that vast corpo- 
ration his ancestral energy and enterprise. Of the 



i84 



LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 



Hendricks family, Abraham, grandfather of the 
subject of this sketch served in various pubHc 
offices and as a member of the Legislature of 
Pennsylvania 1792-3 ; 1793-4; 1796-7; 1797-8, 
a time when the '''per diem " and mileage attaching 
to such service did not outweigh the dignity of 
popular representation nor influence the duration 
of legislative sessions. 

Jane Thomson, sister of Judge T., and John 
Hendricks, father of Thomas A., met at the resi- 
dence of Rev. Dr. Black, in Pittsburg, father of the 
late Colonel Samuel Black, deceased, and from 
that meeting and the resulting intimacy, which 
ripened into love and had its fruition in marriage, 
sprang a relationship which connects the names 
of Hendricks, Thomson, Wylie, Black, Agnew, 
and many others distinguished in the annals 
of Western Pennsylvania; though from almost the 
date of this marriage the history of this branch of 
the Hendricks family is lost to that State. William 
Hendricks, an elder brother of John, had already 
pushed westward to Cincinnati, where he success- 
fully engaged in the practice of law; thence he 
removed to Indiana and became the second Gov- 
ernor of that State after its constitutional organi- 
zation. Prior to that he had been Representative 
in Congress, and subsequently was United States 
Senator. One of the counties of the common- 
wealth in which he so early took conspicuous part 
bears his name, and his public services are an 



ANCESTR Y AXD EARL Y LIFE. j 3 :- 

honorable part of the Iiistory of his State. His 
brother John and his bride, with her niece, followed 
his track, settling first near Zanesville, in Muskin- 
gum County, Ohio, where Thomas A. Hendricks, 
their eldest born, first saw the light, September 7th, 
1 81 9, sixteen years after the admission of Ohio 
into the Union, and when the State of Indiana 
was not yet three years old. The father tarried 
not long there, but pushing farther westward, set- 
tled the next spring after his son's birth near Madi- 
son, then the chief city of Indiana, and the home 
of his brother William. Two years later he loca- 
ted a farm, which afterward became part of the 
site of Shelby ville, the county seat of Shelby Coun- 
ty, a region of level surface and fertile soil. 

John Hendricks was a tanner as well as a 
farmer, in a day when distinctions of vocation were 
not so well marked as now ; but more from force 
of character, culture, and commanding intellect, 
than from eminence of occupation, he was the 
foremost citizen of his community. He was dep- 
uty surveyor of lands under Jackson and ran the 
first lines around his own preemption. There, 
on the bluffs of the Blue River Valley, east of and 
adjacent to what is now Shelbyville, he built his 
frontier home of hewn logs, a mansion in its day, 
dedicated from the laying of the foundation wall 
to social cheer and hospitality. This early struct- 
ure is still standing on the "Michigan road turn- 
pike," its front looking westward across the beau- 



iS6 



LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 



tiful valley. Subsequently, he erected a more 
commodious dwelling, this time a story and a half 
brick building, a little north of the site of the 
other, and for the transportation of material 
to this young Tom drove the oxen. The lad 
had no experience in the tan yard, his father 
having early abandoned that business, but led the 
life of a farmer's boy, first attending a winter school 
taught by Mrs. Kent, and working in the summer. 
John Hendricks subsequently built himself a 
spacious dwelling in the town of Shelbyville, 
where he ended his days. But wherever his 
home was, it was the abode of domestic happiness, 
refinement, and warm hearted entertainment of 
neighbor and stranger. He himself was not only 
a man of striking personal presence and vigorous 
physique, but of unusual natural intelligence and 
accomplishments. But the presiding genius of 
that home was the gentle wife and mother, "who 
tempered the atmosphere of learning and zeal with 
thesweetinfluencesof charityand love. Essentially 
clever and persistent, she was possessed of a rare 
quality of patience, which stood her in better stead 
than a turbulent, aggressive spirit." It only needed 
this complement of her husband's good qualities 
to make a complete conjugal union and to found 
a homestead of delight. Theirs was the leading 
family of the community. Born to the religious 
faith of the Covenanter, she mellowed it to the 
stern enough Presbyterian creed of her husband, 



ANCESTR Y AXD EARL \ ' L IFE. j g -, 

and their house was a landmark of the scattered 
Calvinists in that sparsely settled region. Its 
doors stood wide open alike to the Methodist 
circuit-rider and to the man of God who came 
with cowl and crucifix. No wayfarer was denied 
shelter there, and the vagrant went not from that 
threshold unfed nor turned cheerless from the 
gate. The spirit of levity was not excluded from 
the portals of the Hendricks home, and during 
" court week " judges and lawyers made regular 
visitations there. 

Few of the great men of our land, of such re- 
cent development, have not had the valuable 
experience of early life in the country. One of 
his boyhood rural recollections served Mr. Hen- 
dricks admirably on an occasion a few years ago, 
and was the subject of a most felicitous public 
address. DurinQ[" the meetinof of the Millers' Na- 
tional Association, in 1878, the members were 
given an excursion over the "Belt" Railroad on 
May 30th. Being appointed to welcome them to 
a public dinner in Indianapolis, Governor Hen- 
dricks in the course of his address spoke as 
follows: 

"Indianapolis is a city of no mean pretensions 
in her manufacturing enterprise, and she is sur- 
rounded upon every side with uncommonly rich 
lands that are now rapidly coming under superior 
cultivation. And so, if the investigations and de- 
liberations of your Society shall result in obtaining 



I 88 LIFE OF THOMAS A. HEXD RICKS. 

from every bushel of grain an increased amount 
of food for man, and of such superior quaHty as 
to make its way into the markets of the world, ) ou 
are entitled from us to the benediction which 
Dean Swift bestowed upon the good citizen who 
'could make two ears of corn or two blades of 
grass to grow upon a spot of ground where only 
one ofrew before.' 

"You have come here from many localities and 
from many different sections, and were strangers 
to us when you came ; but we do not feel it so 
now. Indeed, I could not at any time realize that 
you were strangers. As a boy, I was acquainted 
with the miller, and I thought him a great man. 
When he raised the gate with such composure 
and confidence, and the tumbling waters drove 
the machinery ahead, I admired his power. And 
then he talked strongly upon all questions. He 
was very positive upon politics, religion, law, and 
mechanics. Any one bold enough to dispute a 
point was very likely to have a personal argument 
thrown into his face, for he knew all the gossip 
among his customers. He was cheerful. I thought 
it was because he was always in the music of the 
running water and the whirling wheels. He was 
kind and clever, indeed, so much so that he would 
promise the grists before they could be ready, 
and so the boys had to go two or three times. 
He was a chancellor and prescribed the law, 
every one in his turn. 



ANCESTR Y AND EARL V LIFE. 



189 



"That miller, standing in the door of his mill, all 
white with dust, is a picture even upon the mem- 
ory of this generation. It is the picture of a 
manly figure. I wonder if you, gentlemen, the 
lords of many runs and bolts, are ashamed to own 
him as your predecessor? It was a small mill, 
sometimes upon 'a willowy brook,' and some- 
times upon the larger river, but it stood upon the 
advance line of the settlements. With its one 
wheel to grind the Indian corn and one for wheat, 
and In the fall and winter season one day in 
the week set aside for orindinof buckwheat, it 
did the work for the neiofhborhood. Plain and 
unpretentious as compared with your stately 
structures, I would not say that it contributed less 
toward the development of the country and the 
permanent establishment of society. So great a 
favorite was it, and so important to the public 
welfare, that the authorities in that day invoked 
in its favor the highest power of the State, that 
of eminent domain. That mill and miller had to 
go before you and yours, and I am happy to re- 
vive the memory of the miller at the custom mill, 
who with equal care adjusted the sack upon the 
horse for the boy to ride upon, and his logic in 
support of his theory in politics or his dogma in 
reliofion. 

" It was always an interesting story, and one of 
•which you are proud, that in a period when the 
rich and strong were able to corrupt the juries of 



19^ 



LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 



England, Sir Mathew Hale, the Chief Justice, 
threw off the robes ot his office and assumed the 
garb of a miller and found his way into the jury- 
box, and thereby drove out corruption and re- 
stored honesty and virtue. 

"We have now reached the period when the little 
mill and the simple machinery of a former day are 
insufficient, when success and advancement require 
capital, improved machinery, and skilled labor. 
All the interests and pursuits of society welcome 
you. You give good food to all. You give em- 
ployment to the laborer and artisan in the shop, 
and your success is heard in 

'The reapers' song among the sheaves.' " 

When Mr. Hendricks, a few years ago, visited 
the place where his ancestors dwelt in the Ligo- 
nier Valley, of Western Pennsylvania, he eagerly 
sought out the site of their mill. 

In the early history of Pennsylvania the name 
of Hendricks frequently occurs in the records of its 
pioneer settlements. In 1749, Tobias Hendricks was 
Collector of Taxes for East Pennsboro' Township, 
Cumberland County, Pa. The next year, 1750, 
his name appears on the list of taxables for that 
township, and Abraham Hendricks' name appears 
on the list of "freemen," There were Hendrickses 
among the Scotch-Irish settlers of Donegal Town- 
ship, Lancaster County, Pa., about 1722. After 
the Cumberland Valley was opened- for settlement, 
on the extinguishment of the Indian title in 1736, 



ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFE. j 

many of the Scotch-Irish crossed the Susquehanna 
and made homes in the " Great Valley." In a 
petition of the valley inhabitants, relative to trou- 
bles with the Indians, dated July 15th, 1754, ad- 
dressed to the Governor and Council, Tobias 
Hendricks' name is appended. It also appears 
on another petition dated August 28th, i 756. The 
Indian purchase of 1768 opened the lands of the 
province west of the Allegheny Mountains for 
settlement the next year, and many of the Scotch- 
Irish flocked thither from the eastern counties. 
That territory was then in Cumberland, but fell 
into Bedford County on its erection in 1771, and 
into Westmoreland two years later. Warrants 
for land in Westmoreland County were granted 
as follows : Thomas Hendricks, December 20th, 
1786; Abraham Hendricks, January i8th, 1793; 
Abraham Hendricks, January 9th, 1 794, 



CHAPTER III. 

THE EDUCATION OF THE LAD. 

WITH his brothers and sister, young Tom 
Hendricks attended the village schools, 
from which his brother Abram passed 
to the University of Ohio, became a Presbyterian 
minister in the West, and is now deceased. Sub- 
sequently a neighbor, John Robinson, living some 
six miles distant, secured an Eastern instructor 
to prepare his own boys for college, and extended 
the advantages of the school to young Hendricks 
and other neighbor boys. They embraced the 
opportunity and boarded at Mr. Robinson's, until, 
one day, the teacher left suddenly. The boys 
walked to Shelbyville, and the school was broken 
up. Meantime, Thomas Hendricks developed 
more aptitude for books than for woodcraft or 
the labors of the farm, and "his tastes were not 
discouraged by either of his parents. The influ- 
ence of his father's character and the associations 
of his home made their inevitable impression upon 
him ; but the gentleness of his mother's dispo- 
sition, her law of love, and all the gracious power 
of a noble. Christian womanhood, guided and nur- 
tured him to the development of a character 
which he has never lost, and he never ceases to be 
192 



THE EDUCATION OF THE LAD. jn3 

grateful for his mother's influence. For whatever 
exemption he has enjoyed from the infirmities and 
vices too frequent among pubHc men, and for the 
unwavering exercise of those fireside virtues 
which most exalt the popular representative, he 
never ceases to give thanks to the purity and 
tenderness of maternal love and care, which, after 
sixty years, bloom with perennial freshness and 
fragrance. 

During his residence at the Robinson school 
one of his earliest political impressions was 
formed. His father, though a Democrat at that 
time, was not a violent partisan. The school-boys 
attended a political meeting at St. Omer, two miles 
off, and heard John Dumont, the Whig candidate 
for Governor against Wallace, make his argu- 
ment, on questions purely of State policies, for a 
classification of the public works, of which the 
State at that time, as subsequent events unmis- 
takably proved, was carrying too great a load. 
Dumont's logic and power captured and converted 
all his young Democratic hearers to his support. 

Previous to this, however, young Hendricks 
had been made secure in his Democratic loyalty 
in national politics by the circumstance of seeing 
a huge pole erected In Shelbyville, by the Hickory 
i Democrats, with a new broom at the top of it. 
Upon inquiry he was told that this signified the 
determination of Jackson to sweep all the corrup- 
tion out of the governmental departments. He 



.jQ^ LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

was struck with the idea, and never abandoned 
the purpose to "turn the rascals out." 

To complete his classical education the youth 
was sent to Hanover College. It was located 
on the Ohio River, near Madison, and seventy 
miles south of Shelbyville. It was a Presbyterian 
institution, and the president was Dr. McMaster, 
brother of James McMaster, now editor of the 
Freeman^ s yournal, New York. He was a re- 
markable man, six feet in stature, beardless, with 
a gentle voice and great ability. More than half 
the students were from the South. Of his class- 
mates it is difficult to keep track ; but several 
years ago, when Mr. Hendricks went back to his 
alma inafej- to make a literary address, he chose 
to illustrate the relations of college life with the 
duties and chances of the great world beyond 
by tracing the prospects, fates, and fortunes of 
three of his fellow-students. The extremes that 
they presented and the moral of the lesson may 
be gathered from the fact that a few years ago 
Mr. Hendricks, traveling among the foothills of 
California, came across one of the most brilliant 
geniuses of the old college days — a self-aban- 
doned drunkard and social outcast — while another 
probably of less early promise — is now a brilliant 
and distinguished member of the Chicajjo Bar.* 

* John Lyle King, Esq. 



CHAPTER IV. 

AT THE BAR. 

MR. HENDRICKS' chosen profession was 
the law, and he has never abandoned it. 
Leaving Hanover College in 1841, he 
entered upon his professional studies with the 
late Judge Major, deceased, who then was a 
leading lawyer of Shelbyville, and subsequendy 
removed to Indianapolis and acquired wider 
distinction. The advantages of the law school 
conducted in his uncle's office in Chambers- 
burg, however, and the desire to visit the East, 
induced him to become a student and member of 
the family of Judge Thomson. With an outfit of 
two hundred dollars in silver, he took the steamer 
Lawrenceburg up the Ohio, stopping off at Cin- 
cinnati, where, for the first time, he visited a the- 
atre, and saw Edward S. Connor in the drama. 
The mountains of Western Pennsylvania, to the 
lad who had grown up on the Indiana prairies, 
were objects of supreme wonder, and the scenery 
as well as the associations of his ancestors' home 
in the Ligonier Valley inspired him with love for the 
State which had cradled the men and women 
from whom he sprang. During the spring and 
summer and part of the fall of 1843 ^^^ ^"^^^ the 

195 



jg5 LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

guest and student of Judge Alexander Thomson, 
to whose instruction and example he owed much 
of his professional training, and before returning 
to the West he paid a week's visit to Philadelphia, 
the recollection of which is one of the most pleas- 
ant memories of his life. GIrard College claimed 
his attention for an entire day, the munificent plan 
of the institution and the architectural features of 
the structure making deep impression upon him. 
With one dollar and twenty-five cents of his store 
of silver in his pocket, he returned to Indiana one 
week too late for the regular fall examinations for 
admission to the Supreme Court, and was tested 
in a special examination by the Circuit Judges, 
amonof whom were such celebrities as Whitcomb, 
Howard, and Wright. He was easily admitted 
to full practice, and for some years following his 
career was that of the ordinary fledgeling barris- 
ter in a country town. He was diligent, upright, 
suave and popular, and these qualities made 
moderate success sure; signal triumphs were 
rarely to be won in that limited sphere. His 
practice was miscellaneous; inclination and cir- 
cumstances usually directed him in criminal cases 
to the side of the defense. Twice he volunteered 
for the prosecution. 

On one occasion, while on his way to the court- 
house, he was appealed to by a negro who was 
fleeing from a rough fellow's assault. The ruffian 
came up and boasted that he would "teach the 



AT THE BAR. ^^^ 

d — d nigger" to speak to him. Mr. Hendricks 
calmly inquired if that was the colored man's sole 
offense. Upon being so assured, he told the assail- 
ant that he would teach him a lesson. He had 
an indictment framed, bill found, conducted the 
prosecution, and in two hours had the rough sent 
to jail. That was the first person up to that time 
imprisoned in Shelby County for assault and bat- 
tery. In those early days one dollar fine was 
considered fair punishment for such an offense. 
The injured was expected to get redress without 
resort to law. In his address to the jury, Mr. Hen- 
dricks had argued that the inferior social position 
of the negro in that day made the assault upon him 
more reprehensible; it was as though a man with 
his hands tied had been set upon. 

Again, a prominent man in the community, 
owning a fine farm and of eminent social position, 
was charged with, and was manifestly guilty of, 
concealing stolen horses and produce for a robber 
gang who plundered the neighborhood. When' 
fears were expressed that his influence would de- 
feat the law, young Hendricks volunteered to 
prosecute him, and did It so successfully that he 
was sent to the penitentiary, though released by 
the higher court on a technicality. 

The story told of his first-earned fee is that 
Major Powell and Major Hendricks were 
neighbors and leading men of their day. Nathan, 
a son of the former, and Thomas, son of the 



198 



LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 



latter, grew up together, finished their education 
about the same time, and opened their law offices 
within a few days of each other. Soon after 
hanging out their shingles, a petty case was to be 
tried before Esquire Lee, and the young attorneys 
volunteered to appear in it — one on either side. 
When the trial came off the 'Squire's office was 
filled with the friends of the young barristers, 
anxious to hear their maiden speeches. A lot of 
apples were procured and held ready to be given 
him who won the case. Hendricks won it and 
received the apples, which he generously divided 
among his friends. 

He had been at the bar only four years when 
his political career began with election to the 
Legislature, and for thirty-six years he has been 
active and conspicuous in Indiana politics, never 
losing his influence nor forfeiting the confidence 
of his constituents, and gradually coming to fill a 
larger place in the view of the country at large. 
During this time he has not only at no time aban- 
doned his profession, but has steadily developed 
and strengthened in it, and reached his pre- 
eminence as a lawyer after he had been elected to 
the office of Vice-President in 1S76 — and de- 
frauded out of it by the electoral juggle of 1877. 
His idea of the relation, of politics to the legal 
profession was expressed upon one occasion at 
the University of Michigan. Visiting Ann Arbor 
to deliver his lecture on "Revolution," he was 



A T THE BAR. j ^q 

accorded a grand reception by the students, and 
next morning made an address to the pupils of 
the law school, in which he declared that his suc- 
cess as a lawyer had always been his greatest 
pride, and further he said: "The law teaches the 
highest morality. The lawyer must be a man of 
honor, truthful alike in the office and court-room. 
The highest morality taught, except, perhaps, 
from religious sources, is derived from our courts 
of chancery, and the true lawyer is a democratic 
element in society. He takes •the poor man into 
his protection, and makes him equal with the rich 
man who is fiirhtinLr asfainst him in court. He 
upholds the weak man against the strong. The 
legal profession prepares one for every sphere 
of life." He advised the law students to go into 
politics, but if successful not to stay too long — to 
learn public life and then return to their pro- 
fession. 

After his term of service in Congress, and when 
he had returned to the practice of the law, he ac- 
cepted the unexpected appointment by President 
Pierce to be Commissioner of the General U. S. 
Land Office, only because after consultation with 
his father it was determined that the official expe- 
rience miofht oe of value in enlarmno- his knowl- 
edge of the land law, then such an important 
feature of Western practice. 

With a keen, natural aptitude for the law, and 
acute perceptions/)f it, well grounded in the fund- 



200 



LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 



amental principles, and with an earnest, logical 
cast of mind, Mr. Hendricks has been so frequently 
withdrawn from legal practice to public duties 
that he has been more distinguished in politics 
than in law; but his natural fitness and extraor- 
dinary readiness have served him so well that, 
with all interruptions, he has held with facility his 
place in the front rank of lawyers in his State and 
scored many brilliant triumphs before bench and 
jury. Removing from Shelbyville to Indianapolis, 
the commercial, political, and geographical capital 
of the State, in December, i860, he has there 
continued in active practice ever since, save dur- 
ing the four years that he was Governor, when 
he entirely withdrew from practice. His first 
legal partnership was with Oscar B. Hord, ex- Attor- 
ney-General, who is still associated with him, and 
his cousin, Abraham W. Hendricks. The firm of 
Hendricks & Hord, which lost one member by 
Thomas A. Hendricks' inauguration as Governor 
in 1872, gained another by the admission of the 
retiring Governor, Conrad Baker, on the same 
day. Four years before, Mr. Baker had beaten 
Mr. Hendricks for Governor by a slender and 
almost questionable majority after an exciting 
canvass, but their personal relations were such 
that the law partnership, readjusted after the ex- 
piration of Governor Hendricks' term, included 
them both, and so continues. 

Their practice is of a general commercial 



AT THE BAR. 



20I 



character, and during recent years has covered 
many of the leading Indiana cases, including the 
famous C, C. and I. C. Railway case, when Gov- 
ernor Hoadley, Justice Stanley Matthews, and ex- 
Senator McDonald were the array of opposing 
counsel. Mr. Hendricks is wise in consultation 
and weighty in advice, but his popular reputation 
as a lawyer has been won by his ready handling 
of many exciting trials in court. 

One of his most celebrated efforts was his suc- 
cessful defense of Jay Voss, of Indianapolis, who 
found a negro in his father's house under circum- 
stances justifying the belief that he contemplated 
a felonious assault upon a female domestic, and 
took the negro into custody. The prisoner broke 
from his captor and was shot and killed. By a 
speech of great power and subtle reasoning Mr. 
Hendricks acquitted Voss. 

George Harding, the brilliant newspaper wit^ 
tried for assault with intent to kill, was the sub- 
ject of another of Mr. Hendricks' most eloquent 
and successful efforts for the defense. In the case 
of Miller, one of the embezzling officers of the 
First National Bank, of Indianapolis, arraigned 
before Judge Blodgett in the United States Circuit 
Court, Mr. Hendricks was subjected to a most 
severe test by the Court suddenly interrupting his 
impassioned argument of fact with a broad intima- 
tion that he would decide the law of the case 
squarely against his client, the defendant. Though 



202 



LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 



totally unprepared for such a dangerous emer- 
gency, the quick counsel framed on the instant a 
plan of legal argument which, though apparently 
aimed at a court committed against it, was really 
directed with such impassioned energy, vehement 
legal logic, and forensic eloquence to the jury that 
they overrode the Judge's instructions and ac- 
quitted the defendant. The scene is described by 
those who witnessed it as having been a most 
remarkable one, and an eminent lawyer who was 
witness to the fortitude, the address, and the 
strategic skill with which Mr. Hendricks met the 
crisis says " It was the test of a great man." 

Mr. Hendricks, while he has accurate and 
acute legal perceptions, is not a technical lawyer ; 
he is not a specialist, but has the average quali- 
ties of a great lawyer in eminent degree, and, as has 
been well said, " In the readiness with which he 
gathers up and gets well in hand the questions 
both of law and of fact in any case in which he is 
engaged, no advocate in the country excels 
him and very few equal him." His standing at 
the bar is clearly recognized throughout the West, 
and when, at the banquet to Chief Justice Cole- 
ridge, in Chicago, he responded to the toast, "A 
common system of jurisprudence must cement 
national friendship," his scholarly and original 
treatment of the theme was no surprise to his 
compeers in the legal profession. 



CHAPTER V. 

AN EARLY POLITICAL CAREER. 

MR. HENDRICKS has ascended to his 
present political eminence by the gradual 
stacres which have marked the course of 
the most useful and most illustrious statesmen of 
the <:ountry. No sudden accident gave him pop- 
ularity or official position ; no adventitious circum- 
stances promoted him to high station ; no 
" bon-inza " mine has furnished the resources of 
his political strength, and no corporate power 
sent him as its attorney into the halls of the State 
or Federal Legislature. In tracing his political 
career, the several features of it which bring them- 
selves Into prominence are the practically unani- 
mous assent of his party to every nomination 
which he has received since his first candidacy for 
Compress, the willinofness with which he has 
yielded at all times to the wishes of his party and 
the public when fairly expressed, the candor of 
his relations with his party, the freedom from fac- 
tious contentions of his position In the organiza- 
tion, and his consistent and unwavering devotion 
to principle ; which, together with no small degree 
of political astuteness, have enabled him to main- 
tain an unchallenged leadership of his party in his 



204 



LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 



State for a Ioniser period than any other man In 
American politics ever held such control. 

Born of a family that cherished strong political 
convictions, and sprung from a race which never 
failed to bear its part in public affairs, during 
the Polk-Clay campaign he took an active part 
on the stump, and in 1848 was nominated by the 
Democrats of his county for its representative in 
the Assembly. His foremost competitor and 
most frequent antagonist of the local bar, Martin 
M, Rav, was the candidate of the Whicrs for Sen- 
ator, and they stumped the county together, " two 
moneyless and almost clientless barristers," says a 
contemporary, with not strict accuracy, "trying to 
disagree upon the subject of State banks." 

His immediate opponent for the Legislature, 
however, whom he encountered in joint debate, 
after the fashion of that day, was Captain Nathan 
Earlywine, and their discussion on Flat Rock Is 
to this day a vivid tradition of the community. In 
his speech, from a high bluff along the river, Ear- 
lywine charged the Democrats with bringing on 
the Mexican War, and alleged that some time be- 
fore Hendricks in a private conversation had ad- 
mitted this, but boasted that he intended to shift 
the responsibiliiy from the Democrats to the 
Whigs. Hendricks, standing some distance down 
the bank, caught the speaker's words and shouted 
out, "You know that's a lie." For a time a sud- 
den and rather violent termination of the meetingf 



AN EARLY POLITICAL CAREER. 20=; 

was threatened, but when Mr, Hendricks got 
upon the stump he so far justified his declaration 
that even his opponents gave him their attention 
and respect. It was a close fight over the thirteen 
townships of the county, but Hendricks ran ahead 
of his ticket and was elected. 

Of this same Earlywine, with whom Hendricks 
was ordinarily on the best of terms, the story is 
related that, being appointed to make the village 
Fourth of July oration soon after Hendricks had 
been admitted to the bar, he went to the latter to 
borrow from him the manuscript of an oration 
which Hendricks had made at a barbecue, the 
year before, in "Johnny Young's Grove." He 
desired, likewise, to have it adapted to later times 
by the addition of some reference to the pending 
Oregon question. Hendricks, knowing him to be 
a violent Whig, though not very acute in his dis- 
tinction of political principles, played a trick 
upon him by inserting in his speech this valiant 
Democratic sentiment: "If any lines are to be 
drawn across the map of Oregon, let them be 
drazvn in bloody Earlywine delivered the speech 
with explosive eloquence, but the Democrats 
present were equally astonished and amused at 
his patriotic sentiments on the Oregon question. 

In the Legislature, as a member of the Com- 
mittee on Banks, he opposed the extension of the 
State Bank's branches with ability, and as the re- 
sult of a careful study of the subject and of pro- 



^q5 life of THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

found conviction. The increasing demands of 
his profession and a disinchnation for legislative 
service prompted him to decline renomlnation ; 
but in 1850, by the wish of all parties and without 
opposition, he was chosen a member of the Con- 
vention called to amend the original Constitution 
(1816) of the State. Among the members of the 
Convention were Robert Dale Owen, Judges Pettit 
and Biddle, his seniors ; W. S. Holman and 
Schuyler Colfax, who were younger than 
Hendricks. That body was not organized nor 
divided upon party lines. Mr. Hendricks was on 
the Banking and Judiciary Committees, and his 
close attention to responsible duties and his suc- 
cessful disputations with men of greater fame 
gave him a reputation that made him a promi- 
nent candidate for the Congressional nomina- 
tion In his district. It was composed of all the 
counties between Brown and Tipton, Madison 
and Hendricks, and being strongly Democratic, 
nearly every county had a candidate, and one of 
them presented six. On the fifty-third ballot 
Hendricks was chosen — and this was the last time 
in his public career that any nomination conferred 
upon him was seriously contested. His election 
followed the Democratic nomination by a majority 
of more than three thousand over his opponent, 
Colonel Rush, of Hancock. 



CHAPTER VI. 

TWO TERMS IN CONGRESS. 

^ J "^HE first term in Congress is usually an 
I uneventful one to the new member, but Mr. 
•^ Hendricks made himself popular with his 
associates and proved attentive to his constituents. 
He was renominated, as a matter of course, in a 
re-apportioned district of six counties, and his 
second campaign (made the next year, under the 
new Constitution) involved a famous joint discus- 
sion with his opponent, named Bradley. The lat- 
ter had spoken thirteen times in Shelby County, 
and Hendricks had eno-aeement to make but one 

o o 

speech on the familiar ground. Flat Rock, on the 
forenoon of the day before election. There he 
was met with the news that Bradley had invaded 
Shelbyville and was posted to speak there that 
afternoon, to the great terror of the Democrats. 
After his speech at Flat Rock, Hendricks hastened 
to engage the adversary, and, like Sheridan on 
his way to Winchester, the first that he saw 

" Were the groups of stragglers, and then the retreating troops." 

His affrighted friends had actually gone out to 
meet him and to tell him that "Bradley had come," 
though no joint discussion had been arranged. The 
Whigs were correspondingly elated. After eat- 

2C7 



2o8 LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

ing his dinner, Mr. Hendricks proceeded to the 
meeting where his antagonist was savagely assault- 
ing his votes in Cono^ress on the river and harbor 
bill and on the division of the public lands. Just 
as he discovered Mr. Hendricks, he declared with 
violence that some one had reported that he was an 
Abolitionist, and, looking straight at Hendricks, he 
pronounced the author of the charge to be a 
"liar." Every eye was turned to the newcomer, 
and the Whigs were charmed, delighted, and 
fairly intoxicated with the aggressive attitude of 
their candidate. 

Biding his time, and undaunted by the prevail- 
ing sympathy with his opponent, Mr. Hendricks 
took the platform. For once he played the brag- 
gart ; it was the only time he was ever known to 
take off his coat in a public political debate, and, 
departing from his wonted custom to appeal only 
to the higher instincts and cooler judgment of his 
audience, he rivaled his opponent in skillfully 
playing upon their feelings. He defended his 
course in the matters upon which he had been 
assailed, and fearlessly told his hearers to vote 
against him if, when he had finished, they were 
not satisfied with his course. He deliberately took 
up the issues presented by Bradley, and made the 
most adroit use of a rather trifling difference 
which he detected between his veritable record 
and that which his enemies had circulated by hand- 
bill. He appealed to the Western sense of fair 



TIVO TERMS IX COXGRESS. 2O0 

play, and when, after summing up, he asked, "Does 
anybody now disapprove my vote ? " not a man of 
tht- thoroughly routed opposition made reply, Brad- 
ley left the court-house a beaten man. Almost 
frantic with rage and disappointment, he mounted 
a store box on the street, and vainly tried to rally 
his panic-stricken supporters with incoherent re- 
joinder. The result was that the ordinary Dem- 
ocratic majority in the county was nearly doubled 
for Hendricks, and he was returned to Congress 
by a very decided majority in his district. 

During his second term in Congress that body 
and the whole country were exercised over the 
passage of the Nebraska-Kansas bill, involving 
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. Doug- 
las led the debate in the Senate for the creation 
of the two Territories, sustained generally by his 
party, with Seward, Chase, Sumner, and Wade — 
of whom three lived to be in political accord with 
Mr. Hendricks — directing the opposition. After 
an exciting struggle and the memorable passage 
of the bill at midnight in the Senate, it went to 
the House. Here another violent struggle en- 
sued, closed by the strategic parliamentary lead- 
ership of Alexander H. Stephens, when the bill 
passed, without amendment, by one hundred 
and thirteen to one himdred, though Mr. W. 
H. English — then, as now, a Democrat, who 
became the nominee of his party for Vice- 
President in iS8o — had offered an amendment 



210 LIFE OF ThOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

more acceptable to the Whigs, which was cut 
off by the order of the previous question. Of 
the votes for the measure, forty-four were con- 
tributed by Democrats from the Free States, 
fifty-seven by Democrats and twelve by Whigs 
from the Slave States. Of the negative votes 
there were forty-four Whigs, forty- four Democrats, 
and three Free Soilers, from the North ; two 
Democrats (counting Colonel Thomas H. Benton) 
and seven Whigs from the South. Mr. Hendricks 
voted with the bulk of his party for the measure. 
Linn Boyd was Speaker of the House during his 
term of service, and amonsf his most distinofuished 
contemporaries was Hon. Thomas H. Benton, 
conspicuous for long experience in the Senate, and 
who separated from his party on the Kansas- 
Nebraska bill. 

It has been repeatedly urged that his vote for this 
measure was the cause of Hendricks' defeat for 
re-election, but it was cast strictly in accord with 
the sentiments of his constituents, who remained 
throughout the Douglas controversies in the party 
fast adherents of that popular leader. Upon enter- 
ing his second term, Mr. Hendricks had avowed his 
unwillingness to be a candidate the third time, and 
only the taunts of the opposition and the chal- 
lenge of those who criticised his course in Con- 
gress changed his determination. He was unan- 
imously renominated, and all the elements of op- 
position combined in support of Lucien Barbour, 



TWO TERMS TV COXGRESS. 



271 



who had been a Democrat, and who now rahicd 
to his cause Free-Soilers, Abohtionists, Temper- 
ance men, Know-Nothings, Whigs, and every ele- 
ment of opposition which, in those days of piebald 
politics and Whig disintegration, sprang up to 
confront and destroy the party in power. None 
of these was more intense and potential for a 
brief season than the Know-Nothing party, and 
as its principles are still cherished by a large por- 
tion of the opposition to the Democracy, and as 
Mr. Hendricks has never modified his convictions 
upon that subject, an extract from his speech at 
Shelbyville, in the Congressional canvass of 1854, 
is illustrative of his opinion on a theme of abiding 
interest in a land of such composite nationality as 
ours. On that occasion Mr. Hendricks said: 

" When die Democratic Administration of Jef- 
ferson came in, liberal laws were enacted, and our 
young Republic said to the oppressed millions of 
Europe, ' Come, and cheap lands shall furnish you 
a home ; come, and the flag of the free shall wave 
over and protect you ; come, and just laws shall 
make you free.' They did come, and with them 
came the scholar, the artist, the farmer, the me- 
chanic, and the laborer, and they brought no 
trouble upon our fathers, but much strength, and 
contributed largely to the development of the 
country. Our fathers were then only five millions 
strong, but they were not afraid for their liberties 
or for their Protestant religion in the adoption of 



2 ' 2 



LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 



that policy. Since that day half a century has 
gone by, and our last census shows us to be a 
people of twenty-three millions, with a native- 
born white population of seventeen millions and 
three-quarters, and a population of foreign birth 
of only two millions and one-quarter. Our for- 
eign population, animated by a common sentiment 
of admiration for our institutions, have abandoned 
the lands of their birth, and with their wives and 
children have settled down among us, making our 
fortunes their fortunes, our hopes their hopes, and 
our destiny their destiny. When have they re- 
fused to discharge any duty required by Govern- 
ment ? Do they not promptly pay their taxes, 
diligently labor upon the highways, faithfully serve 
in our armies, and valiantly fight in defense of our 
country? It is not true that our liberties or our 
religion are endangered by the presence of our 
foreign population. Our fathers intended to se- 
cure the liberties of the citizen, that the Church 
and State should be separate, and that the 
Church should not control the State, nor the State 
corrupt the Church. No test can be made by law, 
whereby one class of men shall be promoted to 
office and another class deprived of office because 
of their religion. The Constitution prohibits it for 
the reason that such a thing ought not to be done." 
That wave of political revolution rose beyond 
the high-water mark of partisan folly in many 
States, and though it ebbed more swiftly than 



TIVO TERMS IN CONGRESS. 2 f -» 

even it flowed, the ugly marks of its ascendency 
were visible for many years, and the debris which 
floated on its crest is still to be seen scattered 
here and there in American politics. Mr. Hen- 
dricks was submerged by it, and retired from 
Congress March 5th, 1855, fully intending to re- 
sume the assiduous practice of his profession in 
Shelbyville. 

This purpose was Interrupted a few months 
later by the totally unsolicited and unexpected 
tender from President Pierce, In a personal letter, 
of the appointment to the office of Commissioner of 
the General Land Office, in the Department of the 
Interior, then administered by Secretary Robert M. 
McClelland, of Michigan — one of the three Cab- 
inet offices ever held by that State. The position 
was accepted only after much deliberation, and 
with the view of promoting Mr. Hendricks' 
knowledge of the land law, as he had resolved to 
devote his future career to his chosen profession. 

Mr. Hendricks continued in this office, at the 
request of the succeeding Secretary, Jacob 
Thompson, of President Buchanan's Administra- 
tion, and remained Commissioner until 1859, when 
he resigned to resume his law practice. He had 
brought to the place vast aptitude for the dis- 
charge of its duties, and the business and organ- 
izinnr faculty which Its proper administration re- 
quired. During his term and his superlntendency 
of the one hundred and eighty clerks employed, 



214 



LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 



twenty-two thousand contested cases were settled 
and over four hundred thousand patents issued. 
The exercise of his functions was distinguished 
by careful surveys, early examinations and prompt 
decision of titles, ready aid to settlers, a recog- 
nition of the value to the remainino- crovernmental 
domain of improvements upon preempted sec- 
tions, and the assurance to owners under Federal 
grants of certain and unimpeachable rights. In 
his general view at that early day, and before the 
subject had become one of such vital apprehension 
as it is now. he regarded with most favor the 
claims of small settlers, and he guarded with 
jealous care against the absorption of the public 
domain, the people's inheritance, by grasping 
monopolies, reckless speculators, greedy corpora- 
tions, and alien landowners. 

His decisions were rarely overruled, and his 
services to the sections of the country opened up 
in the days of his administration have been cher- 
ished in grateful memory by the people who were 
benefited. On July 5th, 1865 Senator Hendricks, 
visiting St. Paul, was tendered a banquet by the 
Common Council and citizens of that place "in 
recognition of his good offices toward Minnesota 
as Commissioner of the General Land Office and 
as United States Senator." In making a journey 
to San Francisco in 1869, passing through Omaha 
he was received with a great popular ovation, and 
five thousand people gathered in the evening to 



Tiro TEEMS nV CONGKESS. 2 I 5 

honor him and to Hsten to an oration on the state 
of the country, in the course of which he appHecl 
himself largely to the proper disposal of our pub- 
lic lands, and maintained, as he had always held in 
his official position, that every advantage in the dis- 
position of them should be given to the private 
settler. 



CHAPTER VII. 

DURING THE WAR. 

IN the differences of the Democratic party im- 
mediately preceding the Presidential struggle 
of i860, and which lead to its defeat that year, 
the overwhelming sentiment of the Indiana Democ- 
racy was with Douglas, and Mr. Hendricks sym- 
pathized with it. He clearly foresaw the impending 
consequences of these dissensions, and was not 
disposed to be a candidate for the Gubernatorial 
nomination of his party. But circumstances had 
made him the leader of the Democracy of the 
State, and with one voice his fellows called upon 
him to be its standard-bearer in the great contest 
which opened almost with the year in the State 
Convention held on Jackson's Day, January 8th, 
i860. The defecdon of Jesse D. Bright, the old- 
time Democratic leader, aggravated the situation, 
but thus early Mr. Hendricks had made the reso- 
lution which he has ever since adhered to, never 
to turn a deaf ear to the call of a party which he 
feels has honored him. He took the nomination 
and made the fight, leading it not so much for his 
own sake as for the Douglas electors and the suc- 
cess of the National Democracy in their life-and- 
death struggle. Henry S. Lane was his opponent 
216 



DURING THE WAR. 



217 



and they canvassed die State in joint debate. Tlie 
Republican canvass was materially aided by Oliver 
P. Morton, another recruit from the Democratic 
ranks, who was the candidate for Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor, with a good understanding that in the 
event of Republican success Lane was to be 
elected to the United States Senate, and Morton 
would succeed to the Executive chair for nearly a 
full term. All this was realized in Lane's election 
by a majority of nine thousand seven hundred 
and fifty-seven, which the Republicans doubled 
next month in the Presidential contest. Lane was 
chosen to the Senate in three days after his inaug- 
uration, and Morton entered upon his career as 
" War Governor," in which office he showed 
great ability and developed such political resources 
as made him the unquestioned captain of his party 
In Indiana while he lived. Between him and Hen- 
dricks, as the respective leaders of the organiza- 
tions thenceforth to be engaged continually in 
dubious conlTict, there was the sharpest contrast of 
public and prlv^ate character. Their gladiatorial 
contests, one campaign after another, made them 
conspicuous figures before the whole country ; the 
always doubtful issue In their State and the easy 
command by each of his respective organization 
kept them in the forefront of popular attention, 
and Indiana was proud of both. Morton's statue 
in bronze ornaments the "Circle" Square in In- 
dianapolis; Mr. Hendricks lives in that city, com- 



2 I 8 LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

mandlng- the universal respect of his fellow-citi- 
zens who await higher honors for him, but need no 
further formal distinction to signalize their appre- 
ciation of his public services and personal worth. 
After his defeat for Governor, having mean- 
v^hile removed to Indianapolis, Mr. Hendricks 
entered upon an enlarged law practice, without 
relaxing his interest or abandoning active par- 
ticipation in politics. Upon the gathering of the 
war clouds, in common with most of his party and 
all conservative men, he deprecated civil war and 
favored any honorable constitutional compromise 
to avert its horrors. At a meeting of the Indiana 
Democracy, January 8th, i86i, Mr. Hendricks 
being Chairman of the Committee on Resolutions, 
it was resolved that it was the highest aim and 
most imperative duty of patriotism and philan- 
thropy to preserve the Union of the States in its 
integrity and maintain the Federal compact in its 
spirit. His position was subsequently made the 
subject of bitter misrepresentation, to some of 
which he made ht reply in this letter, which may 
be comprehensively taken as the index to his 
political position throughout the war: 

Governor Hendricks' Views on the Rebellion. 
A Letter to the Indianapolis Journal, Thursday, April 
25th, 1S61. 

"Indianapolis, April 24th. 

" Mr. Editor: — My attention has been called to 
an editorial in the Jon-riLal this morning, in which 



DURING THE WAR. 210 

it Is stated that at a Union meeting held at Shel- 
byville a few evenings since a Committee was 
appointed to wait upon me, with the request that 
I should speak ; that, being called upon by the 
Committee, I refused to speak, saying that I had 
no hand in originating the difficulty, and would 
have nothing to do in extricating the country from 
its perilous condition. 

" The writer has been wholly misinformed. I 
never heard of the appointment of such a Commit- 
tee, and suppose none was appointed. No Com- 
mittee waited upon me with such a request. Had 
I been so honored, I certainly would have respond- 
ed. I have never withheld my views upon any 
question of public Interest from the people of 
Shelby County. Upon all occasions, when It ap- 
peared proper, I have expressed my opinions In 
relation to our present troubles. Since the war 
commenced I have uniformly said that the author- 
ity of the Government of the United States Is not 
questioned In Indiana, and that I regarded it as 
the duty of the citizens of Indiana to respect and 
maintain that authority, and to give the Govern- 
ment an honest and earnest support in the prose- 
cution of the war, until, In the providence of God, 
It may be brought to an honorable conclusion, and 
the blessings of peace restored to our country, 
postponing until that time all controversy In re- 
lation to the causes and responsibilities of the 
, war. No man will feel a deeper solicitude In the 



2 20 LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

welfare and proud bearing of Indiana's soldiery, 
in die conflict of arms to which they are called, 
than myself. 

" Allow me to add, that in my judgment, a citizen 
or newspaper is not serving the country well in 
the present crisis by attempting to give a partisan 
aspect to the war, or by seeking to pervert the 
cause of the country to party ends. 
"Respectfully, 

"Thomas A. Hendricks." 

In this manly statement of a patriotic position, 
from which no partisan consideration nor any tide 
of passion ever swerved him, is to be found the 
most effective answer to profuse misstatements 
which have been indulged in by his enemies. 
Throughout the war his party in Indiana was 
often radically intolerant, and as frequently it was 
the subject of unmitigated persecution and radical 
misrepresentation, but throughout these stormy 
times Mr. Hendricks kept the respect and confi- 
dence of his native State, conserved the fiercer 
antagonisms of the clay, and on the first occasion 
of political preferment was vindicated by election 
to the United States Senate. 

Hon. Joseph E. McDonald, his political asso- 
ciate and friend of many years standing, has borne 
this discriminating testimony to the honorable 
attitude of Mr. Hendricks ciuring the war period : 
"The fact that he was a leader of the Democratic 
party during the war, and that neither the insinua- 



DURING THE WAR. o -• I 



tions nor the insults of wily opponents ever pro- 
voked from him one act or one expression not 
reverential to the Constitution and laws of the 
country, I regard as something well worth re- 
membering. He could never be driven to an 
utterance possible to torture or construe into 
anything like hostility to the Union or enmity to 
any candid effort for its preservation. With his 
reasons for apprehension that our system of gov- 
ernment was to be hopelessly injured, occupying 
the position he did, the most conspicuous figure 
for party malignity in the Republic, his motives 
purposely misinterpreted and his slightest mis- 
take liable to be largely magnified, his course was 
such as attested the loftiest public worth," 

His patriotism was appreciated and recognized 
by those who best knew him and who fathomed 
his motives. Often waiving his own judgment to 
sustain the Government in its extremity, he was 
the friend of Abraham Lincoln, and that great and 
good man gave him patient hearing when he went 
to appeal for the preservation of constitutional 
law by Executive interposition to prevent the 
hanging of Milliken and Bowles, the two Indiana 
victims of military courts, whose execution 
would have defaced our civil annals with ineradi- 
cable stain had not the tempestuous eloquence 
and overpowering logic of Judge Black " shook 
the arsenal " and arrested the faltering judgment 
of the Supreme Court. Upon the occasion of that 



222 



LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 



interview President Lincoln spoke warmly to Mr. 
Hendricks in commendation of peace proposals, and 
detained him in counsel for two hours, while the 
agents of the Republican party in Indiana cooled 
their heels outside, though they abated none of 
their clamor for the blood of the men whom they 
sought to hang by drum head processes of 
justice. 

In June, 1 863, upon the exciting popular question 
of the enrollment and the draft, Hendricks made a 
speech to the people of Rushville, Rush County, In- 
diana, in which he urged the necessity of obedience 
to the act and to all Constitutional enactments, 
both as a matter of duty upon the part of the citi- 
zens, and as the best means of preserving peace 
and order. In the course of this address he said: 
" Respect for legitimate authority and obedience 
to law has long been the cherished sentiment of 
the political party to which it is my pride to 
belong. The dangerous doctrine that the con- 
science of the citizen may sit in judgment upon laws 
enacted in proper fonn, zuith a view to their resist- 
ance, has never been adopted by any considerable 
portion of the people of this State, and has at all 
times been bitterly opposed by the Democracy!' A 
better exposition of the genius of Democracy it 
would be difficult to find. 

In the campaign of 1872, Governor Morton 
having charged that Hendricks, as a Senator, had 
opposed every war measure, Mr. Hendricks con- 



DURING THE WAR. 22^ 

ciiisively answered by showing that he had voted 
for the army appropriation bills during his term,and 
particularly for that which sent Sherman triumph- 
ant in his march to the sea, replenished the ranks 
of Grant before Petersburg^, and crave vioor and 
success to all subordinate operations of the war. 
That bill of five hundred and twenty-eight mil- 
lion dollars for such purposes was the largest ap- 
propriation ever made on earth. 

Mr. Hendricks never lacked appreciation of 
the gallantry and heroism of the true soldier, and 
in a letter to the managers of a banquet to Gen- 
eral Sherman, in Indianapolis, July 25th, 1865, he 
wrote: "I am gratified that his old associates in 
arms now in this city have determined in a suita- 
ble and elegant manner to do honor to one of 
the m.ost gifted and illustrious captains of this age, 
whose skillful leadership of his gallant and grand 
army has shed so much lustre on American arms 
and contributed so greatly to restore peace for 
the country, and whose enlightened policy and 
spirited magnanimity toward the enemy in the 
hour of their defeat has reflected credit upon our 
character and people."* 

* Again, before the Army of the Tennessee, Indianapolis, November ist, 
1878, he said, "The name of the ijreat captain whose genius conceived 
and whose strategic and tactical skill conducted the march to the sea, will 
live in the memory of the Indiana school-boy long after Xenophon's 
memorable march shall have been forgotten by scholars." 



CHAPTER VIII. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. 

THE political reaction came very early in 
Indiana. In tlie election of 1862 the 
Democrats obtained a majority of the 
Legislature on joint ballot, and there never was 
any doubt that it would elect Mr. Hendricks to 
the Senate, such was his pre-eminence in his 
party. He was elected early in 1863 and 
entered the United States Senate on the 4th 
of March of that year. Into that body he took 
the qualities which had distinguished him in 
his previous public experience, and his urbanity 
of disposition won for him many friends among 
his colleagues, irrespective of party. The Demo- 
crats in the Senate were overshadowed by an 
adverse majority, but maintained their organiza- 
tion with unflinching courage in the face of the bitter 
hostility which was born of the excitement of the 
war period and the malignant popular misrepre- 
sentation to which the opposition to the Adminis- 
tration was subjected. The reputation which had 
preceded him and his recognized ability gained 
for him early a place in the leadership of his party 
in the Senate, and he served with distinction and 

industry on the Committees of Claims, Public 
224 



IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. ^^^ 

Buildings, Judiciary, Public Lands, and Naval 
Affairs. That his Senatorial experience in that 
critical epoch worked no depreciation of his worth 
in popular estimation is best proved by the suc- 
cess of his subsequent political career. His re- 
lations with the politics of that period are thus 
summed up by a discriminating- critic"'' of public 
men and measures : 

"He was a Democratic Senator in the most 
trying times of the war, when many less faithful 
or less discreet men made hopeless shipwreck of 
their political future, but the record of Mr. Hen- 
dricks has stood the severest test and is con- 
spicuous for its freedom from the partisan blun- 
ders which then and since have ranked as crimes. 

" The sweep of Republicanism over the North 
as a necessity to sustain the Lincoln Administra- 
tion, carried Indiana with it, and anchored it in 
the Republican column under Oliver P. Morton, 
the ablest politician and statesman of the oppo- 
sition. Mr. Hendricks fell himself in one of Mor- 
ton's great battles, but he then, as ever before 
and after, proved himself stronger than his party ; 
and he was the first of the overthrown Demo- 
cratic chieftains to recover his State." 

For four years of his Senatorial term he was 
the colleague of Senator Lane, and for the re- 
maining two years Governor Morton, who suc- 
ceeded Lane, was his junior colleague. It was in 

* Colonel A. K. McClure in Philadelphia Times, April 25th, 1880. 



2 26 ZZ(^i5' OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

the discussion of the reconstruction questions that 
Mr. Hendricks took most prominence, and upon 
one occasion, January 30th, 1868, he engaged in 
masterly dispute with Morton on the vital issue 
of all the reconstruction debate. It was of that 
speech that ex-Senator McDonald has recently 
said : " I was in Washington during Mr. Hen- 
dricks' Senatorial term, and heard his speech in 
reply to Morton, who favored a military bill then 
up for discussion. It was certainly the ablest ef- 
fort of Mr. Hendricks' life, and I do not remem- 
ber ever to have heard a more adroit, earnest, and 
eloquent discourse. It had a marked influence at 
the time, and won the highest order of admiration 
from his opponents." Mr. Hendricks had shared 
Mr. Lincoln's friendship and confidence, and knew 
his disposition toward the South. He was fre- 
quently at the White House and was always 
warmly and cordially welcomed there. In March, 
1865, just before the assassination, after the ad- 
journment of the Senate, Mr. Hendricks called 
on Lincoln to bid him good-bye. He took the 
Senator kindly by the hand and said : " I know, 
Hendricks, that you are a Democrat; but you 
have treated my Administration fairly, and I think 
it is due you now to say to you that things will 
shortly assume a shape across the river [turning 
a.nd pointing to the Potomac] when I can have a 
general jubilee." It was certainly the purpose of 
the President to have offered the South a gener- 



JN- THE SEMATli OP THE VMITED STATES. 



227 



ous policy of reconstruction, which would prob- 
ably have alienated from him the Radicals of his 
own party, but as certainly would have com- 
manded for him the confidence of the late rebel- 
lious States and the co-operation of the great 
conservative element of the North. 

His tragic taking off, alas ! interrupted this. His 
successor was not able to carry out the work, if 
he even rightly understood his fallen chief's 
purposes and plans. But throughout the debate 
that ensued over the restoration of political rights 
to the Southern States Mr. Hendricks maintained 
by law and logic what he believed to be the posi- 
tion of Mr. Lincoln with regard to them, and 
favored what he thought would have been the 
practical policy of the murdered President. That 
policy he proved most conclusively, in his speech 
of January, 1868, by citations from the speeches 
of Morton and Wade of a few years before, to 
have been in accordance with the Democratic 
theory of 1868. For instance, he quoted this pas- 
sage from a speech by Morton : 

"From the beginning of the war up to the pres- 
ent time, every message of the President, every 
proclamation, every State paper, and every act of 
Congress, has proceeded upon the hypothesis that 
no State could secede from the Union ; that once 
in the Union, always in the Union. Mr. Lincoln, 
in every proclamation, went on the principle that 
this was an insurrection, a rebellion against the 



228 Z/y^ie OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

Constitution and laws of the United States ; not 
a rebellion of States, but a rebellion of the indi- 
viduals, the people of the several Southern States ; 
and every man who went into it was personally 
and individually responsible for his acts, and could 
not shield himself under the action or authority of 
his State. He went on the principle that every 
ordinance of secession, every act of the Legisla- 
tures of the rebel States in that direction, was a 
nullity, unconstitutional and void, having no legal 
force or effect whatever, and that as these States 
were, according to law, in the Union, their stand- 
ing could not be affected by the action of the peo- 
ple ; that the people of these States were 
personally responsible for their conduct, just as a 
man is responsible who violates the statute in re- 
gard to the commission of murder, and to be 
treated as criminals, just as the authorities thought 
proper ; that the people of a State can forfeit 
their rights, but that so far as their action is con- 
cerned, in a legal point of view, they had no power 
to affect the condition of the State in the Union. 
Every proclamation and every act of Congress 
have proceeded upon this hypothesis." 

Senator Wade also had said in the Thirty- 
eighth Congress : 

"It has been contended in the House of Rep- 
resentatives, it has been contended upon this floor, 
that the States may lose their organizations, may 
lose their rights as States, may lose their corpo- 



IN THE SENATE OE THE UNITED STATES. 320 

rate capacity, by rebellion. I utterly deny that 
doctrine. I hold that once a State of this Union, 
always a State ; that you cannot by wrong and 
violence displace the rights of anybody or disor- 
ganize the State. It would be a most hazardous 
principle to assert that. No, sir ; the framers of 
of your Constitution intended no such thing. And 
how gentlemen, with this principle of the Consti- 
tution staring them in the face, can fancy that 
States can lose their rights because more or less 
of the people have gone off into rebellion, is mar- 
velous to me." 

Mr. Hendricks turned these arguments most 
effectually upon the opposition in the establishment 
of his theory that the existence of a State which 
had been in rebellion, " its organization as a State, 
its Constitution, which was the bond of its organiza- 
tion, continued all the way through the war ; and 
when peace came it found the State with its Con- 
stitution and laws unrepealed and in full force, 
holding that State to the Federal Union, except 
all laws enacted in aid of the Rebellion." In fur- 
ther support of his position, Mr. Hendricks said: 

" Mr, Lincoln, in most express terms, in most 
emphatic language, in language at the time some- 
what offensive to some members of his own party, 
held the same doctrine ; and I call the attention 
of Senators to the proclamation to which I refer. 
In the first place, Mr. Lincoln, on the 8th of De- 
cember, 1863, issued a proclamation, first, of gen- 



2 ■^o ^^^^ ^^ THOMAS A. HEMDRlCtCS. 

era! amnesty to those who would take a prescribed 
oath, and then assuring them that if the people of 
these States would recognize State Governments 
loyal in their character the Executive would re- 
spect and, under this clause of the Constitution, 
would guarantee those Governments. Here is 
his language — not calling upon Congress as the 
source of power for the action of the people, but 
appealing directly to the people independently of 
Congress. He says that if they will reorganize 
their State Governments, such shall be recog- 
nized as the true Government of the State, and 
the State shall receive thereunder the benefits of 
the Constitutional provision which declares that 
'the United States shall guarantee to every State 
in this Union a republican form of government,' " 
etc. 

He further reminded his Republican colleagues 
that the Winter Davis bill passed on the last day 
or two of the first session of the Thirty-eighth 
Congress. It provided a legislative mode of re- 
organization, a legislative policy. Instead of 
acting under that bill, Lincoln threw it back in the 
face of Congress, and said that Congress should 
not tie his hands to any particular mode of re- 
oro-anization. Such was his proclamation, dated 
on the 8th day of July, 1864, after he had been re- 
nominated ; and after that he was re-elected by 
his party. Continuing his illustrations and cita- 
tions, he made unanswerable statement of the 



iN THE SENATE OE THE UNITED STATES. o -> T 

Democratic position and convincing^ proof that it 
Was the pohcy of Lincoln. He reviewed with 
tnaster hand the wrongs and oppression of carpet- 
bag Governments and miUtary satrapies in the 
South, and forcibly arraigned the Republican 
Congress for its infractions of the Constitution. 

Knowing the hopelessness of an appeal to 
reason or justice on the part of the majority, but 
looking to the country and the future, he said: 
" There are not many of us In the minority here, 
but few as we are, we feel that we are standing In 
the Thermopylae of our country's history, and I 
believe there will not one flee from the combat." 
It will hardly be disputed In the light of subse- 
quent history that the minority in that eventful 
struo-o-le were rlo-ht. 

During the impeachment trial of Andrew 
Johnson, when Benjamin Wade, acting Vice-Presi- 
dent, took his seat as one of the triers In the case 
and proposed to exercise his Senatorial preroga- 
tive to vote on the question of Johnson's guilt or 
innocence, himself being next in succession, Mr. 
Hendricks challenged him and forcibly stated the 
objections to such an assumption when he de- 
clared that " no man should help to take from the 
President his office when that man is to fill the 
office if the proceeding succeed." The question 
thus raised was characterized by Mr. Sumner as 
one " of much novelty," and in Its different parlia- 
mentary phases it was the subject of a two days' 



LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 
J' 



2X2 



debate. It was finally made a point of order that 
a motion to postpone the swearing in of Mr. 
Wade was out of order, " under the rules and 
under the Constitution of the United States." 
Chief Justice Chase submitted the point for debate, 
and after a prolonged discussion Mr. Hendricks 
withdrew his objection, because Senator Bayard 
and other of his colleasfues who agfreed with him 
on the merits of the case were of the opinion that 
the question ought more properly to be raised 
when the court was fully organized. 



H 



CHAPTER IX. 

TWO GUBERNATORIAL CAMPAIGNS. 

IS leadership in the Senate was so marked, 
and his exposition of the Democratic 
position so candid, fair, and able, that Mr. 
Hendricks in 1868 was a leading candidate of his 
party for President. In the National Convention 
held in New York his name was received with 
great enthusiasm, and was supported by many 
votes through the twenty-one ballots in which the 
Convention souQ-ht to reach a decision between 
the eighteen names before it. On the twenty-first 
ballot Hancock led with one hundred and thirty- 
five and a half to one hundred and thirty- two for 
Hendricks, when the break was made for Seymour 
and he became the unwilling nominee by acclaim. 
Mr. Hendricks never sulked in his tent. From 
the moment the choice of the Convention was 
made it had his loyal support. Much against his 
inclination, he was nominated unanimously by his 
party in Indiana for Governor, but he shrank not 
from carrying the standard placed in his hand, 
and, after a most exciting joint debate over the 
the State with his opponent, Conrad Baker (sub- 
sequently and at present associated with the 
Hendricks law-firm), Mr. Hendricks was defeated 

233 



2'hA LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS 

on the face of the returns by nine hundred and 
forty-two pluraHty. For four years following hd 
devoted himself assiduously to the practice of his 
profession. When the disintegration of parties 
was threatened in 1872 he anticipated an organic 
union of many elements of the Republican party 
with the Democratic and thoucrht this could be best 
accomplished by the nomination of Hon. David 
Davis in the Liberal Republican Convention in 
Cincinnati. Disappointed at the selection of Mr. 
Greeley, he yielded to the party sentiment which 
ratified that nomination at Baltimore, and was 
aeain without dissent made the candidate of his 
party for Governor, being pitted on this occasion 
against General " Tom " Browne, the popular 
Republican nominee. 

The campaign of 1872 in Indiana was the best 
fought battle that the Democratic organization of 
that State ever made. It had slight equipment of 
money, but 'conducted the canvass in the most 
thorouofh manner. It was a hand-to-hand conflict, 
Morton leading the opposition to save his State 
for his party. Nothing but the power of Hen- 
dricks and his personal popularity prevented utter 
defeat for the Democrats. The Legislature was 
lost, and the entire State ticket, except Superinten- 
dent of Public Instruction and Governor, to which 
latter office Hendricks was elected by one thou- 
sand, one hundred and forty-eight over Browne. 

The overwhelming defeat of his party in the 



TWO GUBERNATORIAL CAMPAIGNS. o -> r 

Other sections of the country that year abated for 
a season Democratic interest in National poHtics, 
but a single circumstance of the times proves the 
hold which the Governor of Indiana had on the 
affections and respect of his party at large. The 
Greeley electors had been chosen in Maryland, 
Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and 
Texas — a total of sixty-eight. After the election 
and before the meeting of the Electoral College, 
Mr. Greeley died, quickly following his beloved 
wife, at whose death-bed he had been watcher 
and mourner during that fiery canvass. The un- 
precedented and unprovided for contingency of a 
party with a certain number of electoral votes being 
left without a candidate had occurred — as it is lia- 
ble to happen any time, though no party has taken 
warning from this notable experience to provide 
for it. When the Democratic electors, in their 
several States, thus freed from obligation to the 
nominee of the National Convention, were left to 
their free choice, forty-two of them voted for Mr. 
Hendricks, while eighteen voted for B. Gratz 
Brown, the candidate for Vice-President, two Tor 
Chas. J.Jenkins, and one for David Davis. 

Mr. Hendricks was inaugurated Governor Jan- 
uary 13th, 1873, and began an administration 
marked by his characteristic conservatism, close 
attention to details, practical wisdom and good 
judgment upon public questions. The integrity 
of his motives and conduct was never called into 



2'>5 LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

question. With a wise system of State govern- 
ment, which had not suffered from serious malad- 
ministration of its internal affairs, the Common- 
wealth of Indiana was in fairly prosperous condition 
when he found it, and his administration improved 
its healthful state. 

One of his official acts which provoked conten- 
tion and criticism was his approval of the Baxter 
bill of a Republican Legislature, regarded in some 
quarters as an extreme temperance measure and 
distasteful to an element of his party which had 
given him political support. The enactment was 
not in accordance with his views of legislation, but 
had been passed by both branches of the Assem- 
bly upon the recommendation of his predecessor. 
Although he knew the bill would become a law, 
whether approved by him or not. Governor Hen- 
dricks would have been willing to interpose the 
Executive veto if he could have found a constitu- 
tional objection of substantial weight to the meas- 
ure, but this not appearing, he signed it. With 
characteristic frankness and fearlessness he went 
into the next State Convention of his party to dis- 
cuss the issue raised by his approval of the bill ; 
and being made Chairman of the Convention, 
he addressed it at length upon current topics, 
making this reference to the Baxter bill : 

"I came to the conclusion that its provisions 
were not in violation of the Constitution. It was 
not a case of hasty or inconsiderate legislation. 



Tiro GUBERNATORIAL CAMPAIGNS. 0-7 

It was deliberately considered in both branches 
of the Leg-islature. Believino- the bill to be con- 
stitutional, and that it expressed the deliberate 
judgment and will of the Legislature, it was my 
duty to sign it. / believe the veto poiver is con- 
ferred to arrest unconstitutional and hasty legisla- 
tion, and legislation in derogation of fundamental 
and essential rights, such as the equality of represen- 
tation, a7td 7iot to enable the Governor to oppose his 
opinions to those of the peoples immediate represen- 
tatives upon questions of 7nere policy or police regu- 
lation. That law has not received the popular 
support necessary to make it efficient. It has 
encountered determined hostility on the part of 
those engaged in the liquor business, and for 
many months extreme temperance people, in a 
very extraordinary manner, have shown an un- 
willingness to abide by its provisions. 

" Propositions will be brought before the next 
Legislature for the material modification or repeal 
of the law. What legislation shall take its place? 
Our Supreme Court has declared absolute pro- 
hibition to be unconstitutional, and experience, 
I believe, has shown it to be impracticable. It 
then only remains to regulate the traffic. 

" Any useful law must rest upon the proposi- 
tion that there are serious evils to society and to 
individuals connected with the traffic in intoxica- 
ting liquors which it is the province of the law to 
restrain and prevent. Sales should not be made 



238 Z//^£ OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

to boys; and if necessary to prevent it, the boy 
who misrepresents or conceals his age to obtain 
liquor should be punished as well as the party 
who knowingly sells to him. Drunkenness should 
be punished as well as selling to the intoxicated. 
All sales should be forbidden when the public 
peace or safety requires it ; and, like other pur- 
suits, it should be suspended in the night time. 
Perhaps the hour now fixed is unnecessarily and 
inconveniently early, but society should be pro- 
tected from the disturbances and bloodshed inci- 
dent to the traffic in the middle of the night. 

"I think it might properly be considered whether 
a difference in regulation could not safely be made 
for the sale of vinous and malt liquors and the 
stronger and more intoxicating- drinks. There is 
certainly a great difference in the evils that result 
from their use. 

"With these and such other provisions as may 
seem reasonable and necessary, I think experi- 
ence justifies the adoption of the license system. 
The amount required for the license in each case 
should be (greater than heretofore. It should 
be sufficient to make the party selling feel that 
his interest is identified with that of society in 
preserving order and good conduct at his place 
of business, and avoiding all violations of law. 
This policy will bring a large revenue into the 
school fund, and will prove more efficient in sup- 
f^ressing the evils of intemperance 'than the 



TWO GUBERNATORIAL CAMPAIGNS. 239 

present system. I cannot appreciate the objec- 
tion that by receiving a hcense fee society uses 
money received from an improper source. Un- 
der the present law the State grants the permit 
and declares the business lawful Under a policy 
which we have long maintained, every violation 
of our criminal law that is punished by fines adds 
to the school fund. No law upon this subject can 
be useful unless supported by public opinion in 
its favor. The wise legislatoV considers the weak- 
ness as well as the strength, the follies as well as 
the wisdom, of man, and adapts the laws to his 
real wants and necessities." 

The eminent wisdom of his position and the 
practical results of it were demonstrated by sub- 
sequent events. He followed his speeches in the 
Convention and on the stump with recommenda- 
tions to the Legislature. The Baxter bill was re- 
pealed, a license system substituted that has con- 
tributed millions to the school fund of Indiana, 
the evils of intemperance were mitigated, while 
the legitimate liquor and beer traffic was placed 
upon a basis and subject to a regulation far more 
satisfactory to those engaged in it. 

The extract from his speech on the Baxter 
bill, which is italicized in the fore2:oinQf citation, is 
a commendable view of the veto power, of which 
few Executives have shown such intelliQi'ent com- 
prehension. 

Upon one occasion during his term as Gov- 



240 



LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 



ernor the Legislature of Indiana adjourned with- 
out completing its business. Governor Hendricks 
brought it back straightway. His admonition that 
the neglected measures required little time, and 
that the members, having not yet left the capital, 
had not earned mileage, brought about a prompt 
dispatch of the neglected business and prevented 
unnecessary prolongation of the extra session. 

During his term as Governor, December 29th, 
1874, at the opening exercises of the State Teach- 
ers' Association, he delivered an address full of 
thoughtful concern for the educational interests 
of the State, which always had his earnest atten- 
tion. 

Under his administration the debt of the State, 
which is now no considerable amount, was largely 
taken up, the credit of the Commonwealth sus- 
tained and enhanced, and its material affairs pros- 
pered. It was during this period that the financial 
issue threatened to divide the Democracy. As a 
sufficient answer to the misrepresentation which 
Mr. Hendricks' attitude toward this question has 
been subject to, there is appended here an extract 
from his speech in the Convention of 1878. From 
these sentiments he never departed, though the 
Indiana Platforms in some degree had tran- 
scended his views and also that of the Ohio De- 
mocracy, in the campaign when he went over to 
help them, but he invariably steered his course 
consistently with these sentiments : 



ThVO GUBERNATORIAL CAMPAIGNS. 241 

"We desire a return to specie payments. It is 
a serious evil when there are commercial mediums 
of different values; when one description of our 
money is for one class and purpose, and another 
for a different class and purpose. We cannot too 
strongly express the importance of the policy that 
shall restore uniformity of value to all the money 
of the country, so that it shall be always and read- 
ily convertible. That gold and silver are the 
real standard of value is a cherished Democratic 
sentiment not now or hereafter to be abandoned. 
But I do not look to any arbitrary enactment of 
Congress for a restoration of specie payments. 
Such an effort now would probably produce wide- 
spread commercial disaster. A Congressional dec- 
laration cannot make the paper currency equal to 
gold in value. It cannot make a bank note equal to 
your dollar. The business of the country alone can 
do that. When we find the coin of the country in- 
creasing, then we may know that we are moving in 
the direction of specie payments. The important 
financial question is, How can we increase and 
make permanent ou r supply of gold ? The reliable 
solution is by increasing our productions and 
thereby reducing our purchases, and increasing 
our sales abroad. He can readily obtain money 
who produces more than he consumes of articles 
that are wanted in the market, and I suppose that 
is also true of communities and nations," 



CHAPTER X. 

ELECTED VICE-PRESIDENT AND COUNTED OUT. 

WITH such a loyal support of his party 
in his own State as no man as ever 
retained in American politics, and with 
an unchallenged place in the front rank of the 
leaders of the Democracy of the whole country as 
he had now come to hold, popular sentiment made 
Mr. Hendricks one of the two conspicuous candi- 
dates of his party for the Democratic Presidential 
nomination in 1876. He had proved his states- 
manship in long and honorable public service, his 
integrity had never been assailed, he had led the 
battles of his party for supremacy in Indiana, and 
he had demonstrated his ability to carry that State, 
one of the pivotal points of the electoral struggle. 
In the St. Louis Convention his name was pre- 
sented by Mr. Williams, seconded by Mr. Fuller, 
both of Indiana, and Mr. Campbell, of Tennessee, 
for his delegation, spoke in favor of Hendricks' 
nomination. But in the long struggle of the Reso- 
lutions Committee the supporters of Mr. Tilden 
had secured the vantage ground by successful 
advocacy of the " hard money " platform. The 
first ballot practically decided the result. It was 
as follows: 
242 



ELECTED VICE-PRESIDENT AND COUNTED OUT. 

FIRST BALLOT, ST. LOUIS CONVENTION, 1876. 



243 



STATES. 








s 


-a 


-2 




.a 




New York 


70 
26 

19 
12 

14 
12 












Massachusetts 












Illinois 


23 












California 












Maine 














Arkansas 














Colorado 


6 












Connecticut 


12 

14 












Alabama 


5 
6 

30 
10 

I 


2 

2 










Iowa 










Indiana 










Kansas 














Georgia 


5 
10 


I 




16 

4 






Virginia 






New Hampshire 










West Virginia 






"is" 




10 




New Jersey 








Texas , 


10 

14 
8 
2 

19 


2^ 


2 


I 






Vermont 






South Carolina 














Rhode Island 










2 




Missouri 


7 
I 






19 


Wisconsin 







Delaware 






6 






Tennessee 




24 










Mississippi 


16 

9 
6 










Louisiana 




5 


c> 






Oregon 










Ohio 










44 




Pennsylvania 






58 








Minnesota 


10 
II 

8 

9 

24 

3 
6 

14 
403^ 












Maryland 


3 

4 


2 










Florida 












5 




2 






Kentucky 






Nevada 


3 












Nebraska 












Michigan 


8 

133^ 














77 


18 


31 


56 


19 







Whole vote 713 

Necessary for a choice 476 

Tilden 403^ 

Hendricks ^SSyi 

Broadhead 



Hancock 75 

Allen 56 

Bayard 27 

Parker 18 



•19 



^AA LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

The issue of administrative reform and tlie con- 
sideration given to the larger importance of New 
York's thirty-five electoral votes, determined the 
struorcrle after one ballot in favor of Mr. Tilden. 
The first ballot was reported as given, and after 
the announcement of it the States soon tumbled 
in to make his vote the necessary two-thirds. 

After the Presidential nomination tlie Conven- 
tion took a recess until next morning, and during 
the interval every thought of any other nominee 
for Vice-President than Mr, Hendricks was aban- 
doned. Upon reassembling, the delegates nomi- 
nated him with great enthusiasm by acclamation 
on the first ballot, though no assurance was had 
from him or from the delegates who had presented 
him for the first place that he would accept the 
second. Importunities quickly poured in upon 
him from all parts of the country, and, yielding to 
the universal demand from the party which had 
honored him, and which he was always ready to 
serve, he accepted the nomination and bore his 
part bravely in the memorable campaign of 
1876. 

In his letter of acceptance of that year he re- 
peated his financial views as they had been previ- 
ously expressed; and, while he avowed distrust 
of artificial devices to secure resumption as hin- 
drances rather than helps, he reiterated the doc- 
trine that "Gold and silver are the real standards of 
value, and our national currency will not be a 



ELECTED VICE-PRESIDENT AND COUNTED OUT. 



245 



perfect medium of exchange until it shall be con- 
vertible at the pleasure of the holder." 

Upon other subjects of more timely and abiding 
interest, Mr. Hendricks declared with great vigor 
his sympathy with the declarations of the platform 
and the official acts and utterences of Mr. Tilden. 
For example, he said : ' 

"The institutions of our country have been 
sorely tried by the exigencies of civil war, and 
since the peace by a selfish and corrupt manage- 
ment of public affairs which have shamed us before 
civilized mankind. By unwise and partial legisla- 
tion, every industry and interest of the people 
have been made to suffer; and in the executive 
departments of the Government dishonesty, rapa- 
city, and venality have debauched the public ser- 
vice. Men known to be unworthy have been 
promoted, while others have been degraded for 
fidelity to official duty. Public office has been 
made the means of private profit, and the country 
has been offended to see a class of men who boast 
the friendship of the sworn protectors of the State 
amassing fortunes by defrauding the public Treas- 
ury and by corrupting the servants of the people. 
In such a crisis of the history of the country, I re- 
joice that the Convention at St. Louis has so nobly 
raised the standard of reform. Nothing can be 
well with us or with our affairs until the public 
conscience, shocked by the enormous evils and 
abuses which prevail, shall have demanded and 



* 2A.6 ^^^^ ^^ THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

compelled an unsparing reformation of our na- 
tional Administration, 'in its head and in its mem- 
bers.' In such a reformation, the removal of a 
single officer, even the President, is comparatively 
a trifling matter if the system which he repre- 
sents, and which has fostered him as he has fos- 
tered it, is suffered to remain. The President 
alone must not be made the scape-goat for the 
enormities of the system which infects the public 
service and threatens the destruction of our insti- 
tutions. In some respects I hold that the present 
Executive has been the victim rather than the 
author of that vicious system. Congressional and 
party leaders have been stronger than the Presi- 
dent. No one man could have created it, and 
the removal of no one man could amend it. It is 
thoroughly corrupt, and must be swept remorse- 
lessly away by the selection of a Government com- 
posed of elements entirely new and pledged to 
radical reform. 

" With the industries of the people there have 
been frequent interferences. Our platform truly 
says that many industries have been impoverished 
to subsidize a few. Our commerce has been de- 
graded to an inferior position on the high seas ; 
manufactures have been diminished; agriculture 
has been embarrassed ; and the distress of the 
industrial classes demands that these things shall 
be reformed. 

"The burdens of the people must also be light- 



Elected vice-president and counted out. 247 

ensd by a great change in our system of public 
expenses. The profligate expenditure which in- 
creased taxation from five dollars per capita in 
i860 to eighteen dollars in 18 70 tells its own story 
of our need of fiscal reform. 

"Our treaties with foreign powers should also be 
revised and amended, in so far as they leave citi- 
zens of foreign birth in any particular less secure 
in any country on earth than they would be if they 
had been born upon our own soil ; and the iniqui- 
tous coolie system, which, through the agency of 
wealthy companies, imports Chinese bondmen, and 
establishes a species of slavery, and interferes 
with the just rewards of labor on our Pacific 
coast, should be utterly abolished. 

" In the reform of our civil service I most heartily 
indorse that section of the platform which declares 
that the civil service ought not to be ' subject to 
change at every election,' and that it ought not 
to be made ' the brief reward of party zeal,' but 
ought to be awarded for proved competency and 
held for fidelity in the public employ. I hope 
never again to see the cruel and remorseless pro- 
scription for political opinions which has disgraced 
the Administration of the last eight years. Bad 
as the civil service now is, as all know, it has some 
men of tried integrity and proved ability. Such 
men, and such men only, should be retained in 
office ; but no man should be retained, on any 
consideration, who has prostituted his office to the 



24.S 



LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 



purposes of partisan intimidation or compulsion, 
or who has furnished money to corrupt the elec- 
tions. This is done, and has been done, in almost 
every county of the land. It is a blight upon the 
country, and ought to be reformed. 

"Of sectional contentions and in respect to our 
common schools I have only to say this : That, in 
my judgment, the man or party that would involve 
our schools in political or sectarian controversy is 
an enemy to the schools. The common schools 
are safer under the protecting care of all the people 
than under the control of any party or sect. They 
must be neither sectarian nor partisan, and there 
must be neither division nor misappropriation of the ' 
funds for their support. Likewise I regard the man 
who would arouse or foster sectional animosities 
and antagonisms among his countrymen as a 
dangerous enemy to his country. All the people 
must be made to feel and know that once more 
there is established a purpose and policy under 
which all citizens of every condition, race, and 
color will be secure in the enjoyment of whatever 
rights the Constitution and laws declare or recog- 
nize ; and that in controversies that may arise the 
Government is not a partisan, but within Its con- 
stitutional authority the just and powerful guard- 
Ian of the rights and safety of all. The strife be- 
tween the sections and between races will cease 
as soon as the power for evil Is taken away from 
a party that makes political gain out of scenes of 



ELECTED VICE-PRESIDENT AND COUNTED OUT. 



249 



violence and bloodshed, and the constitutional 
authority is placed in the hands of men whose 
political welfare requires that peace and good 
order shall be preserved everywhere." 

Upon the issues thus formulated, Mr. Tilden 
and Mr. Hendricks were elected, after a campaign 
in which the candidate for Vice-President took an 
effective part. Of the popular vote the electors 
supported by the Democratic party received 
4,284,885, to 4,033,950 for those who represented 
Hayes and Wheeler, 81,740 for Peter Cooper, 
9,525 for Green Clay Smith, and 2,636 scattering. 
The States divided as follows : 

Tilden and Hendricks had the votes of the 
States of Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, 
Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, 
Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, 
Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas, Florida, 
South Carolina, Louisiana, and West Virginia ; 
total, 203. 

Hayes and Wheeler had the votes of the States 
of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachu- 
setts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, 
Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, California, Minnesota, 
Oregon, Kansas, Nevada, Nebraska, and Col- 
orado ; total, 1 66. 

But the electoral votes of Florida, Louisiana, 
South Carolina, and Oregon were disputed. Mr. 
Hendricks favored insistence upon the lawful 
election of the Democratic candidates and a refer- 



250 



LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 



ence of any legal questions that might arise to the 
constitutional tribunals appointed to decide them. 
Mr. Tilden, it is held, was also for standing on 
the law and precedents, which would have seated 
him and his colleaofue. But the Democrats in 
Congress, to escape what seemed to them to be 
the danger of civil war, assented to the creation 
of an extra constitutional Electoral Commission, 
made up of members of the House, Senate, and 
Supreme Court Judges, consisting of fifteen in all, 
of whom 

Eight were Republicans, 

Seven were Democrats. 

The Republicans voted almost invariably for 
any proposition that would confirm the title of 
Hayes and Wheeler, and by excluding evidence 
when it was hurtful and admitting the same kind 
of evidence when it helped their case, by going 
behind the returns in one instance and refusing 
to go behind them in another, by confirming fraud 
and ratifying forgery, they justified a report which 
gave all the disputed votes to Hayes and Wheeler, 
and seated them by one electoral vote. After an 
exciting struggle in Congress the report was 
adopted and fraud was made triumphant. 

Two Republicans in the House — Henry L. 
Pierce and Julius H. Seelye — raised their voices in 
protest against the fraud, and they continue to 
have the respect of honest men. Senator Roscoe 
Conkling absented himself from the proceedings of 



ELECTED VICE-PRESIDENT AND COUNTED OUT. 25 1 

Congress while the ravishment of Louisiana was 
being perpetrated by his party. 

Hayes and Wheeler Hved through their term, and 
at the expiration of it retired to their respective 
homes. Before the Electoral Commission Judge 
Black had concluded his argument with the pro- 
phecy that the slowly turning mills of the gods, 
which are poetically supposed to grind out retribu- 
tion, would some of these days have the water 
turned on them. The time for fulfillment seems 
to be at hand. The beneficiaries of the fraud re- 
turned to Ohio and New York and have since 
lived in great obscurity, objects of general con- 
tempt. Neither has ever been mentioned for 
other political office or dignity, and Hayes' name 
is received in conventions, even of his own party, 
with hissing, or popularly recalled only by the 
prominence of his wife in temperance and relig- 
ious associations. 

Mr. Garfield, who visited Louisiana in behalf of 
his party in 1876 and sat as one of the Commission 
to judge the Louisiana case in 1877, was nomi- 
nated by the Republicans for President in 1880 
and was inaugurated, but he was assassinated by 
a fanatic named Guiteau, who claimed to be a stal- 
wart of Stalwart Republicans. A most despicable 
character by nature, Guiteau was inflamed to the 
frenzy of his foul crime by the excitement which 
prevailed in his party over the appointment of a 
Collector to the Port of New York. At the sup- 



2 1-2 ^^^^ ^^ THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

posed instigation of the Secretary of State, Mr. 
Blaine — certainly with a view of rewarding one of 
Blaine's friends — the President had removed the 
efficient officer who held this post, without good 
cause and against the wishes of the New York 
Senators. This disagreement threatened to 
divide the party, and at the period of President 
Garfield's death the breach was imminent. The 
political suavity of his successor has healed It for 
a time. 

Senator Edmunds, of the Electoral Commission, 
and Senator Sherman, of the " visiting statesmen " 
of that year, have both been urged as candidates 
for the Presidency; and ill-luck has even attended 
the candidacy of four of the Democratic members 
of the Commission, though they all stood up man- 
fully for the right and the law. While the mildew 
of retribution has thus blighted the political pros- 
pects of those who were responsible for the great 
fraud and those who were its beneficiaries, the 
most conspicuous sufferers by it — Samuel J. Til- 
den and Thomas A. Hendricks — have steadily 
grown in the respect of the public and the favor 
of their party. Had his physical condition per- 
mitted, a mere nod of assent from Mr. Tilden 
would have commanded for him unanimous re- 
nomination in 1884, and with one voice the Con- 
vention laid at the feet of Mr. Hendricks its 
nomination to the place from which he was ex- 
cluded by fraud In 1877. 



CHAPTER XI. 

MR. HENDRICKS AT HOME. 

IT has been nearly a quarter of a century since 
Mr. Hendricks first made his office and resi- 
dence in Indianapolis. With his inborn love 
of rural life and associations, strengthened by his 
experience of maturer years, he for a time had 
his home on a little farm four miles from the city, 
whence he removed within the municipal limits 
after his election as Governor, to meet the require- 
ments of the law which prescribes that the Execu- 
tive of Indiana shall live in the capital city of the 
State, He has always lived in democratic sim- 
plicity, like a gentleman with refined but not 
luxurious or extravagant tastes. With o-enuine 
hospitality he entertained his personal friends 
and public acquaintances during his Gubernatorial 
term, and his frequent popular receptions to the 
Legislature were occasions of great pleasure to 
the members and his fellow-citizens. After his 
retirement from office and during the visit of him- 
self and wife to Europe, their residence was closed, 
and in the interval between that time and the re- 
sumption of their housekeeping they boarded at 
the Bates House, where their pleasant rooms 
were accessible to friends, and visitors were always 
welcomed with genial hospitality. 

253 



254 



LIFE Of THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 



About four years ago Mr. Hendricks and his 
wife — constituting their whole family — removed to 
and since then have lived in one of the two houses 
owned by him in the central part of the city of 
Indianapolis, on North Tennessee Street, near the 
corner of Ohio, across the street from the new 
Capitol of the State in course of erection. His 
residence is a modest two-story flat-roofed brick 
building, painted a drab color and standing a con- 
siderable distance in from the street. A spacious 
grassy lawn stretches in the front and to the side 
of it, with an ailanthus tree and several young 
maples scattered about the grounds. • Straggling 
hollyhocks and other old-fashioned garden flowers 
usually found about country houses are seen along 
the side fence, and an appearance of half neg- 
lect, without any untidiness, gives the entire place 
a cheerful, easy look that makes the humblest caller 
feel at home and the most stately and fastidious 
will have no ri^ht feeling of taste or order offended. 
No "broad sheets of plate glass" attract the won- 
derment of the visitor here, nor is there "ample 
poi'te cockered' neither "baronial hall" nor "massive 
stairways decorated with carvings " betokening 
grandeur of fortune or desire of display. It is the 
modest, fitting home of an American gentleman, 
with a Lroad and hospitable hall, tastefully but 
simply furnished double parlors, well-filled book- 
cases being a feature of the rear room. Mr. Hen- 
dricks' own library and ofifice are in a chamber 



MR. HENDRICKS A T HOME. 255 

on the second floor, and here, within easy reach, 
are his law books, poHtical manuals, reports, and 
all the tools of his varied work. 

The Democratic candidate for Vice-President, 
ex-Senator, ex-Governor, and leader of his party 
in Indiana, is a well-preserved man of about five 
feet nine inches in stature, well proportioned and 
stoutly built, though not corpulent, with small and 
shapely hands and feet ; his once light hair, now 
thin, is well minsfled with the silver of agfe, but not 
of enfeeblement ; his gray eyes have lost no lustre 
and in their use he shows no signs of failing sight; 
his nose is a prominent feature of his face ; his 
mouth and chin, and, indeed, the whole contour of 
his face, are expressive of firm, strong character, 
with a gentleness of disposition and tender touch ; 
he wears the least of side whiskers, which are light 
gray, and his complexion is fair. In conversation 
he is easy, courteous, cautious, and deferential. In 
his face, and form, in the freedom of his counte- 
nance from the wrinkles of age or care, in the 
firmness of his figure and the elasticity of his step, 
he shows the results of a temperate, upright 
life and the unmistakable evidences of a sound 
mind in a sound body, both preserved by pru- 
dent modes of living and constant self-control. 

Mr. Hendricks was married In 1845 to Miss 
Eliza C. Morgan, of the well-known Virginia fam- 
ily transplanted to Ohio, near the metropolis of 
which State her mother still resides. His bride 



2c5 LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

was a beautiful and brilliant girl, who laid her 
hand in his and joined her fortunes with those of 
young Hendricks when his career was all before 
him, and she has been his faithful friend and coun- 
selor in all their happy years of conjugal union. 
A not unfriendly but no more than fair newspaper 
writer has recently printed this personal note of 
Mrs. Hendricks : " She is a fine-looking lady, 
about fifty years old, rather small of stature, with 
dark hair and eyes. She wears eye-glasses, 
which give her something of a distingue appear- 
ance, and she dresses richly but plainly. She is 
a brilliant conversationalist and a lady of rare 
tact. For many years she has devoted much at- 
tention to charitable matters, and for four years 
was one of the Board of Trustees, appointed by 
the Republican Governor, of the State Institution 
for the Reformation of Girls. While president of 
the Board a legfislative investio^ation of the institu- 
tion was held, and developed the fact that the 
affairs had been managed much more economi- 
cally and effectively than when under control of 
men. When Mr. Hendricks was Governor of the 
State she visited with him the various penal and 
reformatory institutions, and was not satisfied 
with a casual inspection of them, but inquired 
into their afiairs closely. She is valuable to him 
in various other ways, for she has an extended 
knowledge of political affairs and excellent judg- 
ment regarding them. All of his carefully pre- 



MR. HENDRICKS A T HOME. o^J 

pared speeches bear the impress of her work. 
They are a charming couple, thoroughly congenial 
and almost equally talented." 

At home and in his travels she is his constant 
friend ; every detail of his life commands her 
closest attention and most faithful care, and she 
enters largely into all plans of his political future. 
But she springs from a family averse to politics. 
Her father, elected to the Ohio Legislature, re- 
signed and quit the place in three days because 
of his distaste for political service ; and she never 
hesitates to say that she married Mr. Hendricks 
" as a lawyer," and takes her highest pride in his 
achievements at the bar. True wife and woman, 
she has the loyal ambition of her sex to have him 
succeed in all undertakings and ardent hopes for 
his election when nominated; but of more supreme 
interest and attraction to her than political intrigue 
or affairs of State is her care for his personal ease 
and domestic comfort. She appreciates that to 
his public and professional success no ministry 
can be more useful than that which wards off dys- 
pepsia ; to the public man, no service so helpful 
as that which affords sleep, "balmy, light, from 
pure digestion bred." 

The first and only offspring of Mr. and Mrs. 
Hendricks was a son, who was born while they 
dwelt in their plain frame dwelling at Shelbyville, 
and there at the age of three he died. His grave 
is marked by a graceful marble shaft inscribed, 



258 



LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 



"Our Little Morcran." Portraits which hanof in 
ahnost every room of their house show a sweet 
baby face with laughing brown eyes, dark curls 
shadowing the brow, and firm, calm lips, resembling 
those of the father. His blessed and perennial 
memory has strengthened their bond of union and 
has been a sunbeam in their home wherever they 
have made it. 

During his Senatorial term, Mr. Hendricks and 
his wife never kept house in Washington, and by 
no appearance of residence there did he ever 
separate himself from or become a stranger to 
his constituents. With remarkable devotion to 
the people among whom he grew to manhood, and 
with unfailing attachment to them personally and 
to their interests, he has made it an almost inva- 
riable rule to visit and speak in Shelbyville, his 
old home, during every general campaign. He 
is authority in that community, and the sympathy 
he has always had from its citizens is one of the 
best tests of a successful public life. During the 
campaign of 1876, the local pride in his career 
and position manifested itself in the erection of a 
campaign pole in Shelbyville, the largest ever put 
up in this country. Its erection occupying several 
weeks' time and involving an expense of over one 
thousand dollars. After the judgment of the 
Electoral Commission it was cut down and made 
into walking-sticks, which had a large sale among 
Jiis admirers. 



MJi. HEXDklCKS A T HOME. 



^59 



Soon following the electoral dispute of 1877, 
Mr. Hendricks and his wife took a journey to Eu- 
rope, visiting Ireland, Scotland, England, France, 
Germany, and Austria. His letters reflecting his 
observations upon these countries, their people and 
institutions, were full of interest and replete with 
practical wisdom. During the winter of 1883-84, 
Mr. and Mrs. Hendricks again visited Europe, 
their time being spent in England, France, and 
Rome, and covering a trip to Algiers. After their 
arrival in New York homeward, they paid a visit 
to Mr. Tilden before returning to Indiana, and 
when they reached their home in Indianapolis, 
April 1 6th, 1884, there was a great popular ova- 
tion to them, marked by a serenade from fifteen 
hundred of their fellow-citizens and speeches by 
leading men of the city. 

Mr. Hendricks was born and baptized in the 
Presbyterian Church, of which his father was an 
elder, and although always a strict moralist and 
generous supporter of agencies for the preaching 
and spread of religion, he connected himself for- 
mally with the Church for the first time about 
twenty years ago, when he joined the Protestant 
Episcopal denomination, and has been for many 
years a warden of St. Paul's Cathedral Church in 
Indianapolis, being the senior in that office now. 
Rev. Dr. J. S. Jenckes, Dean and Rector of St. 
Paul's, speaks in the highest terms of his charac- 
ter as a man and a churchman. His presence as 



2 6o LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

a lay delegate in the General Convocation of the 
Church in Philadelphia in 1883 was notable, 
when Senator Edmunds declared himself "a can- 
didate for no Presidency," and ex-Secretary of 
State Hamilton Fish was another distinguished 
one of the laymen in that body. 

HIS FAITH. 

The simple, earnest Christian faith of the man, 
which knows no doubt and has not been shaken by 
the assaults of modern Agnosticism, is set forth in 
the report by an Indianapolis newspaper of an 
address by ex-Governor Hendricks before the 
Young Men's Church Guild in that city, in course 
of which he said : 

*' I care not which one of the highways you pur- 
sue toward knowledge, you will come to a place 
in the course of your travel where you will stop 
— where you can go no further — as upon the road 
it shall be a mountain or an impassable gulf, and 
beyond that what is the distant land then becomes 
a question exclusively of faith. This side of that 
boundary line it is not allowed to us to adopt 
faith ; but I take it that the providence which 
intended that human intellect should always be 
stimulated to inquiry intended that we should 
rely upon our efforts and investigation within the 
realm of proper inquiry. But we reach a line and 
boundary beyond which inquiry cannot go, some- 
times, very early in our progress. I know scarcely 



MR. HEXD RICKS A T HOME. 2 6 1 

any question that does not have this Hmit and 
restriction. Take your own person, and you know 
of its existence, you know of its faculties and 
powers ; but really you know but little of your- 
self. Have you any idea how it is that your will 
does govern your body ? You know the fact that 
by the will the mind itself does work, but how it is 
and what it is you know not. You know that 
some faculty is connected with your body that 
controls its action ; but just what that faculty is 
you know as much as Adam and Eve when they 
stepped out of the garden. They knew just as 
much as you do. No philosopher has gone fur- 
ther. How it is that spirit dwells with matter, 
and how it influences the action of matter, no man 
knows nor will ever know. So I mig-ht go on to 
give several illustrations, but I will not undertake 
it. For myself, when I come to that boundary 
where faith begins, I choose for my faith that 
which is the most beautiful, the most charming, 
and that which will promote man's happiness to 
the greatest extent and add to the glory and 
honor of the Great Author of all things." 

TRIBUTE TO CHRISTIANITY. 

No less sincere and eloquent was his tribute 

to Christianity in his oration at the laying of the 

corner-stone of the new Capitol building of the 

State, in Indianapolis, in 1880, when in tracing 

the elements of a State's greatness he thus ex- 



262 L^i'^ ^^^'' THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

pressed the obligations of society to the religion 
of Jesus Christ: 

"We can judge of the future by the causes 
only that have operated in the past and that are 
operating now. While the religion of a people 
should be, and in this country is, kept separate 
and distinct from its civil government, still the re- 
hgion of a people insensibly moulds the national 
institutions. It tempers their character, and to 
this temper their laws must conform. It is the 
atmosphere that surrounds and pervades the very 
structure of government. In conjecturing as to 
the future of a people, its religion should be re- 
garded. The social and political institutions that 
have taken their form and spirit under the influ- 
ences of the prevailing religion will be beneficent 
in their influences and of longer probable duration 
in proportion as it is true and enduring. 

"Christianity has breathed its spirit upon the 
institutions that surround us. Some of its solem- 
nities have attended the laying of this corner- 
stone. If the frightful thought could enter our 
minds that Christianity is all a delusion that must 
fade away before the advancing light of science, 
still a comfortinor assurance would remain that 
its gentle and humanizing and elevating influences 
have already so potently acted upon the minds of 
men that no pernicious or degrading superstition 
could ever take its place in any land that it has 
enlightened. If it were possible that r.kepticism, 



MR. HENDRICKS AT HOME. 26'* 

"born of science, could destroy our belief in the 
divinity of Christ, and overthrow all that part of 
our religion that teaches our duties to heaven, it 
cannot be conceived as possible that any form of 
faith could ever be substituted that would better 
teach man his duties in his relation to earth, or 
that would be incompatible with our political in- 
stitutions." 



CHAPTER XII. 

A POPULAR PUBLIC SPEAKER. 

SINCE the day he met Nathan Earlywine on 
Flat Rock, Mr. Hendricks has maintained 
his reputation and popularity as a pubHc 
speaker. He is not violent nor declamatory in his 
expression, nor is he specially gifted with strength 
of voice and grace of manner ; he has not the 
happy anecdotal style of the popular stump 
speaker, nor is he distinguished for ready wit, 
quick repartee, .and severity of invective. He 
neither tears a passion in tatters nor splits the 
ears of the groundlings; he does not drape his 
thoughts in splendor of rhetorical imagery, and 
he suffers somewhat from a lack of imagination and 
inability to readily quote from his extensive read- 
ing of the English classics and parliamentary 
debates, with which, for other purposes, he is 
familiar. But he has a candid, vigorous, persua- 
sive style that attracts and holds the attention of 
the average auditor and entertains without tiring, 
while it convinces and instructs an audience and 
challenges the respect of even the unwilling 
listener. His language is always well chosen, 
and usually dignified and temperate ; if he is 
caustic and merciless to opponents, his severity is 
264 



A POPULAR PUBLIC SPEAKER. 



265 



generally the stern logic of irrefutable facts and 
unanswerable statistics. He speaks extempora- 
neously with fluency, but very often prepares his 
addresses with great care and delivers them from 
manuscript; and several instances of the accuracy 
with which he makes even startling statements 
have warned those who grapple in controversy 
with him that he is not one to lightly make accusa- 
tions without a just appreciation of their gravity. 
Of his popular addresses not of a strictly 
political character one of the most elaborate was 
his eulogy of Washington and the influence of his 
character and principles upon American institu- 
tions. This was delivered before the Democratic 
Association, in the Academy of Music, Philadel- 
phia, February 2 2d, 1869, arfd was repeated in 
other places. While Governor, he very often made 
fitting addresses at public gatherings of a social, 
literary, educational, commercial, or agricultural 
character, and his public utterances were invaria- 
bly in good taste, and displayed rare common 
sense. . He made an address at the meeting of 
Governors on behalf of the great Centennial 
Exhibition, in Philadelphia, October 21st, 1875, 
which was a glowing approval of that great project 
and a thrilling plea for a restoration of good feel- 
ing among all parts of the Union. His address 
at the Southern Industrial Exposition, New Or- 
leans, February 26th, 1876, while ornate and 
eloquent in all its parts, was a rich mine of care- 



266 LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

fully collated information and wise counsel upori 
material subjects. On April 12th, 1882, at the 
annual commencement of the Central Law School 
of Indiana, he delivered an address on " The 
Advocate," concluding with a fit and generous 
eulogy of Governors Whitcomb and Morton, the 
latter his foremost political antagonist. Mr. Hen- 
dricks' lecture on " Revolution," delivered in a 
number of cities during late years, is a philo- 
sophical and historical production of much literary 
merit. 

THE CAPITOL ORATION. 

At the laying of the corner-stone of the new 
Capitol of Indiana, September 28th, 1880, the ora- 
tion was made by Mr. Hendricks. In stirring 
passages he recalled the history of his State since 
its entrance into the Union, and how the enterprise 
of its people had conquered the elements and 
subdued its soil. But of higher importance than 
the swelling of the census tables with the annals 
of its material increase he rated its intellectual 
and moral development. " The dark forests have 
disappeared," he said, " the wet lands have been 
drained ; malarial diseases no longer prevail ; 
and two million of prosperous and happy people 
occupy the rich lands of Indiana. But population 
alone cannot confer rank and dignity upon the 
State. Who cares to remember Persia, with her 
many provinces, her myriads of people, and her 



A POPULAR PUBLIC SPEAKER. 



267 



vast wealth ? But in all the course of time the 
little State of Attica canruDt be forgotten. Greek 
thought and culture and devotion of liberty are 
immortal. Roman law and learnino- and taste 
and couraore have enriched the blood of all civil- 
ized nations. Ancient Gaul is known to us be- 
cause Caesar conquered it and wrote the story of 
his conquest. The men of Indiana not only love 
liberty, but they have a thorough appreciation of 
the advantages of orood orovernment and an intel- 
ligent understanding of what is necessary on their 
part to preserve and maintain it. They recognize 
the fact that wherever a State is controlled di- 
rectly or indirectly by the people, public virtue 
and popular intelligence are indispensable. They 
know that free institutions cannot be made to 
rest securely upon ignorance and vice." * * * 
" The building whose corner-stone we lay to-day 
will be no kingly palace where an arbitrary ruler 
shall wield powers not voluntarily conferred upon 
him by the governed. It will be no temple dedicated 
to some false worship. It will be an edifice where 
the sovereignty of a free and enlightened people — 
a sovereignty invisible indeed, but nevertheless 
as realandaspotentas any that Europe or Asia has 
ever known, shall have its seat — a house from 
which shall go forth those Influences that preserve 
social order and foster public prosperity- — a temple 
where 'sovereign law, the State's collected will, 
sits empress, crowning good, repressing III,' — a 



2 68 Z//"£' OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

political temple sacred to the exercise of a popu- 
lar self-government — a form of government that 
when once well established can never be over- 
thrown, and that is destined in some future ac^e, 
in God's good time, to supersede every form of 
government that ambition, aided by power and 
superstition, has imposed upon the peoples of the 
earth." 



CHAPTER XIII. 

ON THE STUMP. 

DURING every political campaign Mr. 
Hendricks' services on the stump are in 
great demand, not only from the Democ- 
racy of his own State, but of every part of the 
Union. The old Macedonian cry from his Demo- 
cratic brethren of other Commonwealths has never 
fallen upon a deaf ear when Thomas A. Hen- 
dricks was asked to " come over and help." His 
party patriotism knows no limitation of State 
lines ; his personal comfort or individual interests 
never controlled his movements in a campaign. 
When asked once if he was out of politics, he 
answered that he did not expect to be while he 
was out of his erave. And ag-ain he has said that 
the Democratic party has treated him with such 
kindness and bestowed so many favors upon him 
that it could ask no sacrifice of him that he would 
not make. He has presided over many State 
Conventions of his party, notably those of July 
15th, 1874, February 20th, 1878, and of 1880, and 
on these or other occasions he has been wont to 
" strike the key-note " of the Indiana campaigns. 
While Governor of the State, witness to the de- 
moralization which ensued from the concentration 

269 



270 



LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 



of all the Federal forces in the State in October, 
he recommended that the Constitution should be 
so changed that the Qreneral State election take 
place in November instead of October. 

Before the Convention of 1874 he made a 
speech, in which occurs that striking passage in 
arraienment of the mismanaofement of the South 
by the Federal Government and its relation to 
national prosperity: " Cotton and tobacco are the 
most important staples in our exports, at some 
times exceeding all other commodities. Since the 
close of the war it has been the suggestion of wis- 
dom to encourage their production in the largest 
possible quantities, as it had been the dictate of 
humanity, Christianity, and patriotism to promote 
reconciliation and harmony between the sections. 
But political and partisan interests have been 
made paramount to humanity and the welfare of 
the country. Bad governments have been estab- 
lished and, as far as possible, maintained in the 
South. Intelligence and virtue have been placed 
under the dominion and servitude of ignorance 
and ,vice. Corruption has borne sway ; public 
indebtedness has become frightful, and taxes too 
heavy to carry, have crushed development and 
manacled enterprise. In a word, it has been the 
government of hatred, and all this that party 
might bear rule. They have nourished the nox- 
ious plants of corruption — violence and fraud — in 
Louisiana and other States rather than the cotton 



ON THE STUMP. 271 

plant and sugar-cane. Agriculture cannot flourish 
under bad laws, corrupt administration, and cruel 
taxation." 

He made a very impressive speech on "Town- 
ship Democracy" at the Park Theatre, Indianap- 
olis, March 30th, 1881. In his Fourth of July 
oration at Greencastle, the same year, he ex- 
pressed profound sympathy for Garfield, stricken 
down by the bullet of an assassin. In the State 
Convention of August 2d, 1883, he was Chairman 
of the Resolutions Committee. At the Jackson 
banquet given by the Iroquois Club, of Chicago, 
March 15th, 1882, he replied to the toast, "Our 
Country," and he made an address before the 
third semi-annual Convention of Democratic Edi- 
tors of Indiana, June 30th, 1882. 

TRUE REFORM. 

In his speech at Zanesville, Ohio, September 
3d, 1875, he reviewed in a most masterly way the 
increasing extravagance and corruption in the 
administration of public affairs and laid bare to 
the bone the occasion for deep-reaching and 
genuine civil-service reform. 

A FAVORITE IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

Mr. Hendricks took part in the Iowa canvass 
of 1883 ; but in no State is he more of a favorite 
or have his services on the stump been more 
eagerly sought by his party than in Pennsylvania, 



272 LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

where both lines of his immediate ancestry had 
their roots. He spoke with great favor to a 
Philadelphia audience October 2 2d, 1875, in the 
Gubernatorial campaign, at the invitation of the 
Americus Club, and roused his hearers to enthu- 
siasm again and again as he pleaded for the resto- 
ration of good government and the wiping out of 
all sectional lines in an impassioned speech, of 
which a single extract will convey some idea of the 
spirit: 

"Why, gentlemen, is not the wheat that is 
grown upon the rich lands of Indiana a part of 
the wealth of Philadelphia as well as the wheat 
that grows in Chester County ? [Cheers.] Ah, 
gentlemen, it was the teaching of a wise states- 
manship to promote the industries of the South, 
and it was the dictate of Christianity and of all 
religion that the past relations of the two sections 
should be speedily restored. Every religious or 
charitable consideration appealed to you and to 
me and to all of us whose ears were more open 
to the appeals of suffering humanity than to the 
narrow-minded demands of party to close up the 
breach, and said to us: 'The war is over, the 
winds of heaven have blown away the smoke of 
the battle ; we are one people ; one flag once more 
floats over us all ; one Constitution establishes 
the framework of government for us all, and one 
destiny awaits us all. Let us, in heart and in 
hand, in sentiment, in affection, and fraternity, be 



ON THE STUMP. 273 

again one people.' [Here the audience re- 
sponded by rising tumultuously and waving hats 
and handkerchiefs, while makinsf the hall riner with 
huzzas.] 

"I repeat that stern statesmanship and mild- 
eyed religion come to us together with one mes- 
sage, saying, 'Restore the old relations of amity 
and concord between all parts of the distracted 
country, and have prosperity in every portion 
thereof.' [Applause.] But how has it been with 
us? Virginia several years ago was able to re- 
cover her self-government ; Georgia soon after 
resumed control of her own affairs; and finally 
North Carolina came In, and then Texas, and at 
last Arkansas; and just as soon as self-govern- 
ment was restored to all these States, It seemed 
as if blessings literally rained down from heaven 
upon the people. They once more built up their 
waste places; the bramble was taken from their 
fields, and the cotton-plant, the sugar-cane, the 
tobacco-plant, and the corn placed In the ground, 
and prosperity reappeared." [Cheers.] 

The speeches of Governor Hendricks at Phil- 
lipsburg, Centre County, and in Allegheny City, in 
the Pennsylvania Gubernatorial canvass of 1878, 
were signally effective; the wildest enthusiasm 
ever witnessed at a public meeting In that town 
was manifested when he uttered this sentiment In 
his speech In Allegheny: "Do you think the Dem- 
ocratic party can die ? Other parties can die, 



274 Z/i^i£' OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

Other parties may die, other parties do die, but 
the Democratic party can never die. Democracy, 
democratic principles, are always enthroned m 
the hearts of the free and liberty-loving people. 
Although Jefferson was the great teacher ot our 
faith, yet democracy did not have its birth in the 
United States. In the past ages, in all countries 
where there was a desire for better government, 
where man wanted better laws for mankind, and 
where the hearts of the whole people longed for 
equal justice before the law for all the people, there 
was democracy born." On his way to get to Alle- 
gheny some railroad detention had created fears 
that he might not arrive in time to speak, and a 
special train was rigged up and sent out to meet 
him. To get him to the hall in season it was run 
fifty miles in less than an hour, and he was borne 
to the stage on the shoulders of the people, but 
the enthusiasm over his speech exceeded even the 
tumult of applause which his arrival had excited. 



A 



CHAPTER XIV. 

IN CONTROVERSY. 

FREQUENT misapprehension of Mr. 
Hendricks' character is that he is a 
negative man. This impression obtains 
because in the too frequent dissensions which 
have disturbed the harmony of his party he 
has often refused to take sides radically, and 
more than once has successfully attempted to 
allay rather than widen the differences. Mr. 
Hendricks has the gift of seeing what too many 
public men fail to see — that there is generally a 
measure of truth on either side of great popular 
controversies. The radicals unquestionably have 
some uses as pioneers and axe-men in the cause 
of truth, but if it was left entirely to their destruc- 
tive services it is doubtful if its substantial victory 
would ever be achieved. Mr. Hendricks is one 
" that holds fast the golden mean," and comes to 
his opinions rather by argument and conviction 
than through prejudice ; he discusses more than 
dogmatizes, and deems it no proof of good sea- 
manship to escape Scylla by being engulfed in 
Charybdis. But he keeps his views none the less 
tenaciously, enforces them no less aggressively, 
and defends them with no sliofhter decree of skill 

275 



2^5 ^^^^ ^^ THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

and persistency because of these habits of 
thought. The best test of his quaHty of mind is 
made in controversy. Illustrations have been 
cited from his earlier professional and political 
experience in support of this. Let these of more 
recent date serve to confirm it : 

Upon the Invitation of the editor of the Noi^th 
American Review, he discussed the tariff question 
with cogency and clearness in its pages in 1879. 
Again, he engaged in a " symposium " in the 
same periodical with Messrs. Blaine, Lamar, 
Hampton, Garfield, Stephens, Phillips, and Blair, 
upon the questions, " Ought the Negro to be 
disfranchised? OuQfht he to have been enfran- 
chlsed?" He summed up his answers to these 
questions in this concise style : 

" I am not able to see why the subject of negro 
suffrage should be discussed. It must be known 
to all that the late amendments will not be, can- 
not be, repealed. There is but the duty upon all 
to make the political power now held by the en- 
franchised race the cause of the least evil and of 
the greatest possible good to the country. The 
negro is now free, and Is the equal of the white 
man In respect to his civil and political rights. 
He must now make his own contest for position 
and power. By his own conduct and success he 
will be judged. It will be unfortunate for him if 
he shall rely upon political sympathy for position 
rather than upon duties well and intelligently dis- 



IN CONTR VERS Y. 2 '^ 7 

charged. Everywhere the white race should help 
him, but his reliance must mainly be upon him- 
self." 

IN THE CAMPAIGN OF l88o.* 

Mr. Hendricks' most notable political speech 
was made in Indianapolis during the canvass in 
i88o. The State Committee had appointed 
August 14th as the day for opening the cam- 
paign along the entire line. All the available 
orators, both home and foreign, were to be 
drafted into the service. Mr. Hendricks was, as 
usual, in universal demand. From almost every 
one of the ninety-two counties of Indiana demands 
came pouring in upon the State Committee insist- 
ing that they must have Hendricks. Being the 
leader and idol of his party in Indiana, it had long 
fallen upon him to make the speech setting the 
State campaign in motion. 

So strong was the demand that he should carry 
out the precedent which had established the com- 
mon law of the party that Mr. Hendricks accepted 
the urgent invitation of the people of Marion, 
Grant County, Ind., to open the campaign on 
August 1 2th, two days prior to the general open- 
ing planned by the Committee. Contrary to his 

*For the particulars of this account I am indebted to Mr. George F. 
Parker, of the Philadelphia Times and the Weekly Post. He was a 
resident of Indianapolis in 1880, and the above incident came under his 
personal observation, W. U. H. 



2 78 ^^^^ ^^ THOMAS A. tlEMD RICKS. 

practice, he prepared his speech with great care. 
It was written out and condensed down, to the 
last degree. It was a vigorous presentation of 
the issues of the day and the merits of the Demo- 
cratic candidates without a passionate, a doubtful, 
or a useless word. Naturally, Mr. Hendricks had 
always felt most keenly the wrong done him and 
the country by the decision of the Electoral Com- 
mission, and had studied all the elements which 
led up to it. He had given special attention to 
the proceedings of the so-caUed visiting states- 
men at New Orleans in the winter of \Z']o-'], and 
was perfectly familiar with the share each one 
had had in that sinful and shameless proceeding. 
At the close of the Marion speech he therefore 
took occasion to animadvert briefly but in the 
severest terms upon the part which General Gar- 
field had played in the execution of this wrong. 
He asserted that the Republican Presidential can- 
didate had occupied an "inner room" of the New 
Orleans Custom House, where he had examined 
witnesses from the country parishes and had 
coached them in their testimony, which testimony 
he afterward adjudged as a member of the Com- 
mission. This severe accusation attracted no un- 
usual attention for several days ; but in due time 
it came to General Garfield's attention. The can- 
didate did not deign to take any personal notice 
even of so serious a charge upon his personal and 
political character, but by his advice and con- 



IN CONTRO VERS V. 2 70 

sent the Indianapolis yournal, the Repubhcan 
organ, on the 6th day of August, contained a 
bitter editorial article reflecting upon Mr. Hen- 
dricks, accusing him of misrepresenting and ma- 
ligning General Garfield, and calling upon him to 
either substantiate or disavow his charges, with the 
promise that his reply would be published in its 
columns. 

Mr. Hendricks' attention was called to this 
article about nine o'clock of the day on which it 
was published. He at once resolved to reply in a 
public speech in the evening. It happened to be 
the turn of the Democrats to occupy the wigwam 
on that night, and a young negro Democratic ora- 
tor was billed for the principal speech. The an- 
nouncement was given as wide a circulation as 
was possible in the brief intervening time, by 
handbills, wagons, and other accepted methods of 
political advertising, that Mr. Hendricks would 
speak from the same stand with the negro. It 
was impossible to make known that he would 
reply to his traducers, but as the Hoosiers are a 
speech-loving people, and as their favorite always 
drew when announced, the wigwam was crowded 
with a large and expectant audience. 

In the meantime Mr. Hendricks, with only a 
few hours for preparation, was diligently studying 
the testimony taken by the different committees 
that had investigated the New Orleans infamy 
and was making ready an answer. He had neither 



^gQ LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

time, inclination, nor necessity for writing his 
speech. He therefore came to the meeting with 
no notes except the passages he had marked in the 
printed testimony, providing himself with two 
stenographers to make a verbatim report. Plung- 
ing at once into the subject at issue, with the an- 
nouncement that it was purely a question of 
veracity between himself and his newspaper and 
candidate accuser, he began a review of the facts. 
Never hesitating for a word, with all the details of 
that extensive conspiracy at his tongue's end, be- 
fore an audience in keenest sympathy with himself 
and his cause, he showed from General Garfield's 
own testimony that he had been in sympathy with 
the conspiracy, that he had a personal interest in 
its success, and that he had participated in it at 
every turn, just as had been charged in the Ma- 
rion speech. Mr. Hendricks' manner was cool and 
deliberate, the arrangement of the matter simple 
and logical, and his self-possession perfect. Every 
word did its part in unfolding the story of this 
crowning outrage, by which the rights of the ma- 
jority of a people had been trampled under foot. 
For an hour and a quarter did this terrible and pit- 
iless denunciation go on, and when it was closed 
his hearers felt, not only that he had outdone him- 
self, but that they had listened to a masterpiece of 
political oratory. When he had concluded and 
the applause had been stilled, Mr. Hendricks 
quietly introduced the negro to the audience, he 



IN CONTR OVERSY. 2 8 1 

and they remaining to hear an eloquent speech 
from the representative of the race upon whose 
members the opposing party had always claimed 
to have a mort^aofe. 

When the speech was published next day, as it 
was the country over, congratulations poured in 
upon Mr. Hendricks from every quarter. The 
speech had impressed the public as forcibly as it 
had the few thousand people who had listened to 
it, and the response was equally prompt. 

When the full report of the speech was pre- 
sented to the accusing newspaper, it violated all 
decc^ncy and its own promise by refusing to pub- 
lish it or in any way correct the foul aspersions 
it had cast upon the most distinguished man in its 
own city or State. . 



CHAPTER XV. 

RENOMINATED FOR VICE-PRESIDENT. 

THE results of the electoral campaign of 
1877 were disastrous to the hopes of the 
Democracy ; hence an angry contention has 
been waged ever since, with more or less violence, 
within the party as to who of its members was 
responsible in largest degree for the apparent 
assent of the organization to the creation of that 
extra-constitutional tribunal. In all the recrimi- 
nation upon this subject no word of approval for 
the scheme has ever been reported as having 
issued from Mr. Hendricks in those troublous days. 
Further, it is not necessary to dip into that discus- 
sion here. This controversy, in its various phases, 
entered into the ca;ivass for the Presidential nomi- 
nation in 1880. There wasantagonism rather than 
co-operation between the friends of Mr. Tilden 
and those of Mr. Hendricks, and after the former's 
letter of withdrawal was published it was gener- 
ally recognized that the remaining survivor of the 
" old ticket " could not be nominated for first place. 
He was placed in nomination in an eloquent 
speech by Senator Voorhees at the Cincinnati 
Convention of 1880, and was loyally supported by 
the delegates from his State, who did not offer him 
282 



RENOMINATED FOR VICE-RRESIDENT. 28^ 

for any other office nor did they propose the name 
of any candidate from Indiana for second place 
after General Hancock's nomination. Other States 
made Mr. EngHsh, of Indiana, the candidate for 
Vice-President, and the delegates from his own 
State assented. As has been seen, the ticket had 
Mr. Hendricks' most zealous support, but his party 
in Indiana lacked the popular influence of his can- 
didacy that year, and its defeat there in October 
presaged the general disaster of November. 

Subsequently Mr. Hendricks engaged in the 
practice of the law, devoted his leisure to literary 
work and personal enjoyment, visited Europe, and 
deemed his public career closed. The suggestion 
of the name of Hon. Joseph E. McDonald, from his 
own State, for the Presidential nomination of his 
party met with his approval and support, and by 
Mr. McDonald's request Mr. Hendricks was 
placed at the head of the delegation to the Chi- 
cago Convention from Indiana, and was appointed 
to put his distinguished fellow-citizen in nomina- 
tion. At the same time, the proposition to re- 
dress the fraud of 1876-77 by the renomination 
of Tilden and Hendricks met with such favor in 
Indiana that Mr. McDonald stood ready to defer 
to It in the event of Mr. Tilden's consent to such 
renomination. When his letter of peremptory 
declination was made public, Mr. Hendricks was 
entirely out of the field. 

His appearance in the National Convention — 



284 Z//v£: OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

for the first time a delegate to such a body — cre- 
ated great enthusiasm, and every time he entered 
the Convention hall he was received with marked 
demonstrations of popular favor, like encomiums 
and expressions of good-will being directed to the 
distinguished Senator Thurman, of Ohio, also a 
member of the Convention. When Mr. Hen- 
dricks took the platform and made his speech 
nominating Mr. McDonald, the enthusiasm in- 
creased in force, and throughout his address its 
points were marked by thunders of applause and 
unceasing popular tributes of personal respect. 

On the last day of the Convention and during 
its second ballot for President, the single vote of 
a delegate from Illinois for Mr. Hendricks had the 
startling effect of a spark dropped into a great 
pile of combustible material. It has since trans- 
pired that after the ballot of the previous night 
session, in which Cleveland had shown such de- 
cided strength, his opponents, after a careful sur- 
vey of the field, had determined that Mr. Hendricks 
was the only name upon which all the elements 
of opposition could be united and which had a 
positive strength that might be successfully joined 
with these to make the movement a success. 
Accordingly, by preconcerted arrangement — to 
which neither Mr. Hendricks nor the delegation 
from his State was a party, of course — as soon 
as the single Illinois vote was cast for him a 
tumult of cheering broke out from every quarter 



RENOMINATED FOR VICE-PRESIDENT. 28 S 

of the hall. It was intensified by the recollection 
of the electoral fraud and strengthened by the 
sentiment rife in the Convention for the renom- 
ination of the " old ticket," or at least a repre- 
sentative of it. Personal consideration for Mr. 
Hendricks and local pride in a Western nomination 
swelled the greeting which his name received, and 
for nearly half an hour the sight and sound that 
ensued were such as to baffle descriptive powers. 
The vast audience was moved to louder and 
deeper and more expressive demonstrations of its 
satisfaction, and the tumult reached its climax 
when the banner of Indiana was carried to the 
President's desk and Senator Voorhees' tall form 
and waving arms, looming up like the branching 
sycamore, were seen on the platform, and his rich, 
sonorous voice told of the transfer of Indiana's 
votes from McDonald to Hendricks. 

But the flood was broken as^ainst the break- 
water of the rest of the Illinois delegation, who 
announced the bulk of their vote for Cleveland. 
The superior organization, cooler heads, and bet- 
ter discipline of his forces triumphed, and his nom- 
ination was soon accomplished. 

During this eventful time bulletin boards all 
over the country and at nearly every cross-roads 
in Indiana revealed the situation, and for a half 
hour the name of Hendricks was on every lip as 
the likely nominee for President. The sudden 
and totally unexpected demonstration of the 



286 Z/i^£ OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

popular esteem for him overtook him with such 
starthngf effect in the clischar^je of his duties as a 
delegate, that, after the motion was offered and 
put and carried, at his instance, to make Mr, 
Cleveland's nomination unanimous, he retired 
from the Convention, leaving Mr. English to act 
in his stead, and went to his hotel for rest. 

Durinof the recess taken after the head of the 
ticket was named, the prominent members of the 
party held a hurried consultation as to the best 
name with which to supplement the choice of the 
Governor of New York. The fitness of Mr. 
Hendricks' selection was almost unanimously con- 
ceded, and to the suggestion that it would be dis- 
tasteful to him and force the Convention to make 
another choice, the ready answer from those who 
knew him best, though without any authority to 
speak for him, was that he held his party duty too 
high to decline any service imposed upon him 
by its expressed will. 

When the Convention met and the roll of 
States was called, there were various nomina- 
tions made until Pennsylvania was reached, and 
then ex-Senator W. A. Wallace arose and said : 

" I rise again in my place on the floor of this 
Convention, not to place in nomination a Pennsyl- 
vania man by birth, but, sir, to place in nomination 
for the second gift of the American people a man 
springing from old Pennsylvania's stock, from the 
western portion of the Commonwealth. In the 



RENOMINATED FOR VICE-PRESIDENT. 28? 

Star of the West he found the lineaa-e that orives 
him to thf. West. This gentleman is conversant 
with pubHc affairs ; throughout his entire Hfe he 
has known of government and its details. Not 
only a statesman, but a pure and upright citizen, 
the representative of the grossest wrong that was 
ever perpetrated upon the American people, I 
nominate to this Convention as its candidate for 
the Vice-Presidency of the United States Thomas 
A. Hendricks." 

Immediately the scenes of the previous ses- 
sion were renewed with undiminished force. The 
Indiana delegates, in the heat of their disappoint- 
ment at the events of the earlier session, sought 
to dissuade and discourage the Convention by 
statements that Mr. Hendricks was not a candi- 
date, and by intimations that he might not accept. 
But it was all in vain. The tide rose higher and 
higher. Governor Waller, of Connecticut; ex- 
Senator Wallace, Governor Hubbard, of Texas 
and one after another distinguished representa- 
tives of solid delegations spoke for Hendricks' 
nomination and with enthusiasm, but upon the 
deliberate call of the roll every vote in die Con- 
vention was reported for him. The scene that 
followed is thus described by an eye-witness : 

"When the vote of Indiana was announced for 
Hendricks, and it was apparent that his nomina- 
tion was unanimous, the delegates and the audi- 
ence rose to their feet. The whole house was a 



238 Z//'^ (9/ THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

sea of undulating color, formed by waving hand- 
kerchiefs of every hue, hats, umbrellas, and every- 
thing else which could be seized upon by the ex- 
cited assemblage. The band broke in with the 
strains of ' Hail to the Chief;' a number of the 
delegates seized the standards and bore them to 
the platform, where they were gathered into a 
cluster, about which were congregated two or 
three hundred delegates, who formed themselves 
into a procession and marched around the hall, 
while the band favored the crowd with ' The Star 
Spangled Banner.' Immediately upon the cessa- 
tion of the music the people began again with a 
second chapter of uproar, when the band came in 
with * Dixie,' followed with ' Auld Lang Syne,' 
thousands of voices chanting the words. Then 
the solemn notes of 'Old Hundred' came floating 
down from the gallery, and ten thousand voices 
joined in the grand old hymn. 'America' and 
' Home, Sweet Home* were rendered by the band 
and voiced by the crowd, and the demonstration, 
after a continuance of something over twenty 
minutes, was at an end." 



CHAPTER XVI. 

AFTER THE NOMINATION. 

THE news reached Indianapolis promptly 
and revived the enthusiasm, which had 
been checked by the disappointment felt 
after Mr. Hendricks' failure to be nominated for 
President. About midnight a salute was fired, 
and early next morning Mr. Hendricks, returning 
to his home, was greeted on all sides with con- 
gratulations and was visited during the succeed- 
ing day by hundreds of his friends and fellow- 
townsmen. At a ratification meeting called on 
Saturday night, to which he was escorted by 
crowds of citizen Democrats, he spoke extempo- 
raneously, expressing his grateful recognition of 
the kindness shown him by his party of the whole 
country and of the expression of good feeling on 
the part of his neighbors. He thus voiced the 
Democratic demand for an opening of the books 
in Washino-ton : 

" I will tell you what we need — Democrats 
and Republicans will alike agree upon that — we 
need to have the books in the Government office 
opened for examination. [Cheers, and cries 'That 
is it.'] Do you think that men in this age never 
yield to temptation ? [Laughter.] It is only two 

289 



2 go LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

weeks ago that one of the Secretaries at Wash- 
iniJ^ton was called before the Senate Committee to 
testify in regard to the condition of his depart- 
ment, and in that department was the Bureau of 
Medicine and Surgery. In that department an 
examination was being had by a committee from 
the Senate, and it was ascertained by the oath of 
the Secretary who sits at the head of the depart- 
ment that the defalcation found during last year, 
as far as it had been estimated, was sixty-three 
thousand dollars. And when asked about it, he 
said that he had received a letter a year ago in- 
forming him of some of these outrages, and a 
short time since somebody had come to him and 
told him there were frauds going on in the ser- 
vice ; but members of Congress had recommended 
a continuance of the head of the bureau with such 
earnestness that he thought it must be all right, 
and now it turns out that the public was sixty- 
three thousand dollars out, and how much more 
no man, I expect, can now tell. But what is the 
remedy? To have a President who will appoint 
a head of the bureau that will investigate the con- 
dition of the books and bring all guilty parties to 
trial." 

In the foregoing speech, and in his speech nomi- 
nating Mr. McDonald in the Convention, Mr. 
Hendricks had animadverted severely upon the 
decline of official indignation at corruption by the 
reference to William E. Chandler's indifference 



AFTER THE NOMINATION. 2QI 

when the defalcation of sixty-three thousand dol- 
hirs in the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery was 
discovered. Secretary Chandler thought it in- 
cumbent upon him to take cognizance of this 
second attack, and replied in an open letter, in 
which he defended himself by alleging that much 
of the defalcation occurred before he came into 
office, and by asserting that many Democrats had 
recommended Dr. Wales, the chief of the Bureau, 
for reappointment. Thereupon Mr. Hendricks 
replied by an open letter on the following day as 
follows : 

MR. Hendricks' letter. 

Indianapolis, July 14th, 1884. 
The Hon. W. E. Ckandlej^ : 

Sir: I find in the newspapers this morning a 
letter to me from yourself, written yesterday and 
circulated throucjh the Associated Press. You 
complain that I did you injustice in an address to 
the people of this city, made the evening before. 
In that address I uro^ed that " We need to have 
the books in the Government office opened for 
examination," and as an illustration I cited the 
case of a fraudulent voucher in one of the bureaus 
of your department, and stated that upon your tes- 
timony before a sub-committee of the Senate, it 
appeared that the frauds amounted to sixty-three 
thousand dollars. And is not every word of that 
true ? You were brouMit before the committee 



2Q2 LIFE OF r HO MAS A. HENDRICKS. 

and testified as I stated. You admitted under 
oath that the sum of money lost amounted to six- 
ty-three thousand dollars, but your defense was 
that the embezzlement did not wholly occur under 
your administration, but that a part of it was 
under that of your predecessor. It seems to have 
covered the period from June 21st, 1880, down to 
January 25th, 1884. Does that help your case ? 
You were at the head of the department a year and 
nine months of that period, and your predecessor 
about one year and ten months. He was in office 
at the payment of the first false voucher, on June 
2ist, 1880, and up to April 17th, 1882, when you 
came in, and you continued thence until the last 
false voucher was paid, January 25th, 1884. The 
period was almost equally divided between your- 
self and your predecessor. How much of the six 
ty-three thousand dollars was paid out under 
yourself and how much under your predecessor 
your letter does not show. But, sir, upon the 
question that I was discussing, does it make any 
difference who was Secretary when the false 
vouchers were paid ? 

I urged that in cases like this, when frauds are 
concocted in the vaults or in the books of the de- 
partment, the only remedy of the people is by a 
change of the control, so that the books and vouch- 
ers shall come under the examination of new and 
disinterested men. Do you think I am answered 
when you say I was mistaken in supposing that in 



AFTER THE NOMIXATION. o/^-> 

this case the frauds were all under your adminis- 
tration, when, in fact, a part of them extended back 
into that of your predecessors ? Why, sir, that 
makes your case worse. For the Bureau of Med- 
icine and Surgery the defalcation is large, but the 
more serious fact is that it could and did extend 
through two administrations of the department, a 
period of nearly four years, without detection. Biit 
it becomes more serious, so far as you are individ- 
ually concerned, when the fact is considered that 
you had notice and yet took no sufficient action. 
The information upon which I spoke was from 
Washington, the 26th of last month, by the Asso- 
ciated Press, the same that brings me your letter. 
The x^ssociated Press obtained its information 
either in your department or from the investigat- 
ing committee. If you were not correctly re- 
ported, that was the time for complaint and 
correction. You testified that the total of the 
suspicious vouchers discovered so far was about 
sixty-three thousand dollars, and that the money 
fraudulendy obtained was in some instances divi- 
ded between a watchman in the department Car- 
rigan, the Chief Clerk, and Kirkwood, in charge 
of the accounts. Now, what notice had you? 
According to the Associated Press report of your 
testimony you received a letter last year charging 
Carrigan, one of the parties, with drunkenness, 
and after that a man came to you and told you 
that Kirkwood and Carrigan were engaged in 



2gA LIFE OF THOMAS A. HENDRICKS. 

frauds. Did not that put you upon notice and in- 
vestigation ? You testified that some inquiry was 
made, and the conclusion was that while there 
was some suspicious circumstances they did not 
warrant a conclusion of guilt. After a notice, 
verbal and in writing, you left the men in office. 
You did not bring the fraud to light nor the guilty 
parties to punishment. It was Government De- 
tective Wood who discovered the frauds, and the 
Associated Press report says that Wood declared 
he would have no further dealings with your de- 
partment, but would press an investigation before 
Congress. 

What is your next excuse? Worse, if possible, 
than all before. You say a large number of Con- 
p^ressmen, includinof some o-entlemen of preat 
inliuence and position, recommended that the 
head of the bureau. Dr. Wales, should be reap- 
pointed. Members of Congress knew nothing of 
the frauds ; they had no opportunity to know. It 
was within your reach and duty. They were 
probably his personal friends ; you were his 
official superior. But, in fact, did you reappoint 
him? I understand not. Perhaps the detective 
discovered the frauds too soon. But Dr. Wales 
\va.s not one of the three guilty parties. He 
neither forged the vouchers nor embezzled the 
qioney. His responsibility in the case is just the 
same as your own. He was the official superior 
of the three rogues, as you were of himself as 



AFTER THE AOMINATION. 20"; 

well as of them. Neither he nor yourself exposed 
the frauds or punished the parties. I have not 
thought of or considered this as a case of politics. 
Addressing my neighbors, I said that this and like 
cases admonish them to demand civil service re- 
form in the removal from office who will not seek 
to promote it within the sphere of their official 
duty and authority of all. Respectfully, 

T. A. Hendricks. 

The Secretary of the Navy, without further re- 
joinder, started out to sea upon the Government 
vessel Tallapoosa, visiting the seaports and navy 
yards of the Atlantic coast. 

With this prompt deliverance upon the vital 
issues of the day, Mr. Hendricks' candidacy for 
his second election to the Vice-Presidency was 
placed before the country, and there is every 
likelihood that in its results will be realized the 
fulfillment of the prophecy which he uttered at 
the Manhattan Club reception in New York in 

1877: 

" A great and sincere people will pass their 
final verdict upon the outrageous act. Demo- 
cratic principles will be carried out by Democrats 
and by such fair-minded Republicans as will not 
make themselves a party to the wrong done last 
winter. This will be accomplished by the major- 
ity of voters in the several States * * * and 
Indiana will again do her duty." 



CHAPTER XVII. 

NOTIFICATION AND ACCEPTANCE. 

FOR several weeks subsequent to the Chi- 
cago Convention Mr. Hendricks remained 
at his home in IndianapoHs, where he re- 
ceived the visits and congratulations of many 
political and personal friends from all parts of the \ 
country and disposed of a vast amount of corre- 
spondence. Toward the close of July, accom- 
panied by Mrs. Hendricks, he went to Saratoga, 
as had been his wont in the summer, and during 
his stay there was visited by the Committee of 
the National Convention appointed to officially 
inform him of his nomination. On Wednesday, 
July 30th, the day after the Committee had waited 
upon Governor Cleveland for a similar purpose, 
its members assembled in the ladies' parlor of the 
Grand Union Hotel, Saratoga, to present their 
address to Mr. Hendricks. The room was 
crowded with a brilliant company of ladies and 
gentlemen, who greeted the appearance of Mr. )| 
Hendricks with applause. The members of the 
Committee arose when he entered, and remained 
on their feet during the proceedings. , 

Colonel W. F. Vilas, Chairman of the Commit- | 
tee, then addressed the nominee and presented 
296 



NO TIFICA TIO.V AXD A CCEPTAXCE. 207 

the formal notification of his Committee. After it 
had been read Mr. Hendricks repHed as follows : 

MR. Hendricks' reply. 

" Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Com- 
mittee : I cannot realize that a man should ever 
stand in the presence of a committee representing 
a more august body of men than that which you 
represent. In the language of another, ' the Con- 
vention was large in numbers, august in culture, 
and patriotic in sentiment,' and may I not add to 
that, that because of the power and greatness and 
the virtues of the party which it represented it was 
itself in every respect a very great Convention. 

"The delegates came from all the States and 
Territories, and I believe, too, from the District of 
Columbia. They came clothed with authority to 
express judgment and opinion on all those ques- 
tions which are not settled by constitutional law. 
For the purpose of passing upon those questions 
and selecting a ticket for the people that Conven- 
tion assembled. They decided upon the princi- 
ples that they would adopt as a platform. They 
selected the candidates that they would propose 
to the party for their support, and that Convention 
work was theirs. 

" I have not reached the period when it was pro- 
per for me to consider the strength and force of 
the statements made in the platform. It is enough 
for me to know that it comes at your hands from 



2q8 life of THOMAS A. IIEXDRICKS. 

that Convention, addressed to my patriotic devo- 
tion to the Democratic party. I appreciate the 
honor that is done me ; I need not question that. 
But at the same time that I accept the honor from 
you and from the Convention, I feel that the duties 
and responslblhty of the office rest upon me also. 

"I know that sometimes it is understood that this 
particular office — that of Vice-President — does not 
involve much responsibility, and as a general thing 
that is so, but sometimes it comes to represent 
very great responsibilities, and it may be so in the 
near future, for at this time the Senate of the 
United States stands almost equally divided be- 
tween the two great parties, and it may be that 
those two great parties shall so exactly differ that 
the Vice-President of the United States shall have 
to decide upon questions of law by the exercise 
of the casting vote. The responsibility would 
then become very great. It would not then be 
the responsibility of representing a State or a 
district ; it would be the responsibility of repre- 
senting the whole country, and the obligation 
would be to the judgment of the whole country, 
and that vote, when tlius cast, should be in obedi- 
ence to the just expectations and requirements of 
the people of the United States. It might be, 
gendemen, that upon another occasion this respon- 
sibility would attach to the office : 

"It might occur that under circumstances of 
some difficulty — I don't think it will be next elec- 



NOTIFICATION AND ACCEPTANCE. 2QQ 

tion, but It may occur under circumstances of 
some difficulty — the President of the Senate will 
have to take his part in the counting of the elec- 
toral vote ; and allow me to say that that duty is 
not to be discharged in obedience to any set of 
men or to any party, but in obedience to a higher 
authority. Gentlemen, you have referred to the 
fact that I am honored by this nomination In a 
very special degree. I accept the suggestion that 
In this candidacy I will represent the right of the 
jDeople to choose their own rulers, that right that 
is above all, that lies beneath all, for if the people 
are denied the right to choose their own officers 
according to their own judgment, what shall be- 
come of the rights of the people at all? What 
shall become of free government if the people 
select not their officers ? how shall they control 
the laws, their administration and their execution? 
so that in suggesting that In this candidacy I repre- 
sent that right of the people, as you have sug- 
gested, a great honor has devolved upon me by 
the confidence of the Convention. As soon as It 
may be convenient and possible to do so I will 
address you more formally In respect to the letter 
you have given me. I thank you, gendemen." 

At the close of' Mr. Hendricks' remarks hearty 
applause was given, and a general handshaking 
followed, after which the assembled audience paid 
their respects to Mr. Hendricks and then quiedy 
dispersed. 



RECORD 



Democratic Convention 



CHICAGO, 

JTJXj'Z" 8-11, 1884. 



CHAPTER I. 

GATHERING OF THE HOSTS. 

WHETHER Chicago is to be congratu- 
lated or to be pitied in her flood of 
nominating conventions is a question. 
Those who Hve by troops of visitors and lodgers — 
hotel and boarding-house people, venders of cigars, 
refreshments, drinks, peanuts, etc., rejoice. News- 
boys, bootblacks, car drivers, and cabmen find plenty 
to do; but whether the solid, sensible, orderly, quiet- 
loving souls are happy is the problem. Possibly 
Chicago is not overstocked with residents lof that 
character. If this be so, Chicago is constitutionally 
the place for nominating conventions. 

Some idea of the "racket" raised on Sunday 
morning, July 6di, 1884, may be caught' from the 
following graphic picture, sketched by an eye-wit- 
ness. He says : " At a very, very early hour this 
morning the New York County Democracy, five 
hundred strong, each man decorated with a two- 
story badge and mansard roof attachment, entered 
the town amid a blaze of rockets, the elare of cal- 
cium lights, and the brilliancy of Roman candles. 
The bands played, and the boys swore because all 
of the places for refreshment had been closed since 
one o'clock in the morning. The Americus Club, 

303 



504 



GATHERING OF THE HOSTS. 



of Philadelphia, with the Weccacoe Band, escorted 
by the Cook County Democratic Club, also made 
the city lively for an hour or so by marching- through 
the principal streets. Cream-colored hats and 
dark-brown suits constituted the uniform of the 
members, and the lapel of every coat was em- 
blazoned with a badge of purple and gold as 
handsome as a Fifth Avenue front door. 

"The Irving Hall Democracy got in at five, and 
had for their welcome the escort of the County 
Democracy, the crowd massing, as usual, at the 
Palmer House. 

"After the County Democracy had escorted the 
Irving Hall party to the Palmer and marched them 
over the broad streets, the different sections of the 
newly arrived delegation were distributed among 
the hotels. The appearances of the men were not 
only good, but their marching elicited applause all 
along the route. 

" The noise of the half-dozen bands had scarcely 
stopped when another escort was formed, composed 
of the Cook County Democratic Club, the Americus 
Club, and Samuel J. Randall Club, of Philadelphia, 
all with banners, fiags, and colors flying, moving 
over the same route just covered by the Irving Hall 
party. They marched to the Michigan Southern 
depot, where, at half-past six, the trains bearing 
Tammany were unloaded of their precious burden. 
All Chicago had by this time prayed, dined, and 
wined, and for recreation and out of curiosity 



GATHERING OF THE HOSTS. 



305 



crowded along the line the procession was ex- 
pected to pass. Mayor Harrison contributed a 
guiding escort of some of the 'finest' the city can 
produce. It was not Intended Tammany should 
parade until nine o'clock In the evening, to give the 
sachems, braves, and warriors time to wash and 
change their feathers ; but Irving Hall had just 
made so much music, and the thousands and tens 
of thousands that blocked the thoroughfares were 
so expectant, that it was resolved at the last mo- 
ment to give the town a treat." 

So It readily came to pass all through the day 
that clatter and bang and push and drive were in 
order, much to the disorder of things generally 
and to the discomfort of the good citizens and 
church-goers. But to all ills there is an end, and 
so, after the rush of Sunday and of Monday, the 
eventful opening-day arrived, dawning cool and 
clear. 

Prompdy at 12:30?. m. on Tuesday, July 8th, 
1884, the Convention was called to order by ex- 
Senator Barnum, Chairman of the National Dem- 
ocratic Committee. 

Prayer was offered by Rev. D. C. Marquis, of 
the Northwestern Theological Seminary. He 
prayed for "a blessing on this great assembly of 
representative citizens, that they should be en- 
dowed plentifully with that wisdom which is first 
pure, then peaceable, and gende, and easy to be 
entreated; that nothing should be done through 



306 GATHERING OF THE HOSTS. 

Strife and vain jealousy, but that they should be 
filled with that charity which is not puffed up and 
doth not behave itself unseemly." He prayed 
that their deliberations would be guided to such 
conclusions as would best promote the glory of 
God and the welfare of the nation. Chairman 
Barnum said : 

Gentlemen of the Convention : Harmony 
seems to be the sentiment of this Convention. 
Even the air seems saturated with a desire and 
determination to nominate a ticket for President 
and Vice-President which will be satisfactory to 
the North and to the South, to the East and to the 
West ; nay, more, a ticket that will harmonize the 
Democracy throughout the Union and insure a 
victory in November. Harmony prevailed in the 
deliberations of the National Committee. No 
effort was made to nominate a temporary Chair- 
man in the interest of any candidate, but, on the 
contrary, cne who shall preside over the delibera- 
tions of this Convention with absolute impar- 
tiality. 

In that spirit, and to that end, I have been di- 
rected by the unanimous vote of the National 
Committee to name the Hon. Richard B. Hub- 
bard, of Texas, for temporary Chairman of this 
Convention. As many as favor the election of 
R. B. Hubbard for temporary Chairman will say 
"aye." [A universal "aye."] Contrary, "no." 
[Not a voice responded on this side.] Hon. R. 



GATHERING OF THE HOSTS. 



309 



B. Hubbard, of Texas, is unanimously elected 
temporary Chairman of this Convention. The 
Chair appoints Senator B. F. Jonas, of Louisiana ; 
Hon. George T. Barnes, of Georgia, and Hon. 
Abram S. Hewitt, of New York, a committee to 
wait upon Mr. Hubbard and conduct him to the 
chair." Mr. Hubbard having been led to the plat- 
form, the Chairman led him to the front, and said: 
" Gentlemen of the Convention, I have the dis- 
tinguished honor of presenting to this Conven- 
tion Hon. Richard B. Hubbard, of Texas, as the 
absolutely impartial temporary Chairman of this 
Convention." 

ADDRESS OF THE TEMPOTIARY CHAIRMAN. 

Mr. Hubbard came forward amid loud applause, 
and said : 

" M r. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Democratic 
Convention of the Union : I am profoundly grate- 
ful for the confidence which you have reposed in 
me in ratifying the nomination of the National 
Executive Committee, who have done your bid- 
ding for the last four years by your authority. I 
accept it, my fellow-Democrats, not as a tribute 
to the humble citizen and your fellow-Democrat 
who speaks to you to-day, but rather as a com- 
pliment to the great State from whence I come — 
a State which, more than any other American 
State, is absolutely cosmopolitan in every fibre of 
its being. In its early days and struggles, thither 
came to our relief, as the winds sweep across the 



3IO 



GA THERIXG OF THE HOSTS. 



sea, men of Illinois and New York, men of Maine 
and New England, men of Georgia and along the 
coast, gave their lives at the Alamo and San Ja- 
cinto for the freedom of Texas. I can only recall 
to you in the brief moments which I shall detain 
you the fact that our neighboring sister State, 
her women — her glorious Spartan women — sent 
to us the twin cannon that belched into (glorious 
victory at San Jacinto ; but above all we accept it 
as a tribute to the fact, my fellow-Democrats, that 
Texas, with her 2,000,000 people, gladly at each 
recurring election place in the ballot-box over 
100,000 Democratic majority. 

'* Fellow-Democrats, we have met upon an occa- 
sion of great and absorbing interest to our party 
as well as to our common country. The occasion 
would not justify me, nor demand that I should 
attempt, to speak to you of its great history and 
its distinctive principles through two-thirds of the 
most glorious history of our country. I could 
not stop to discuss, if I would, its munificent policy 
of progress ; the part which she has taken in 
building up our country, its progress, its territory, 
and its wealth. I can only say to you to-day, in 
brief, that the Democratic party in all the essen- 
tial elements is the same as it was when it was 
founded by the framers of the Constitution, nearly 
three-quarters of a century ago. 

" Men die as the leaves of autumn, but prin- 
ciples underlying liberty and self-government 



GA THE RING OF THE HOSTS. -, x . 

— the right of representation and taxation going 
hand in hand ; economy in the administration of 
the Government, so that the Government shall 
make the burdens as small as they may be upon 
the millions who constitute our countrymen — 
these and other principles underlie the Demo- 
cratic party and cannot be effaced from the earth, 
though their authors may be numbered with the 
dead. 

" I thank God, fellow-citizens, that though we 
have been out of power for a quarter of a cen- 
tury, we' are to-day, in all that makes adherence 
and confidence and zeal, as much a party organ- 
ized for aggressive war as when the banners of 
victory waved over our heads. 

"The Democratic party, fellow-citizens, since 
the war time, commencing with reconstruction, 
with our hands manacled, with our ballot-boxes 
surrounded by the gleaming bayonet, with carpet- 
bag rulers, with the voice of freemen who pay 
their taxes to the Government stifled — the Demo- 
cratic party has lived to see through all this mis- 
rule the day come when in a great majority of our 
States the Democratic party has resumed its con- 
trol, its power. It has your House of Representa- 
tives, and but for treason stalking in the Senate 
Chamber we would have that, too. 

"We have had the Presidency, too. But with 
impious hands — the hands of the robber — our 
rights were stricken down at the ballot-box, and, 



312 



GATHERING OF THE HOSTS. 



through perjury and bribery and corruption, men, 
uttering falsehood through pale lips and chatter- 
ing teeth, in the very temples of liberty, stole the 
Presidency from this country. Some of the men 
who participated in it have passed beyond the 
river and stand to o-ive an account of their stew- 
ardship. But history will not lie when it records, 
as it has, that that Electoral Commission an- 
nounced in the Senate Chamber through the 
House that it would consider the question and 
the evidence of fraud in the returns of the vote of 
Louisiana. I remember it. It is the blackest 
page in our country's history, and all good Re- 
publicans to-day are ashamed of it. 

"They turned their faces as well as their con- 
sciences upon the promise of the past, and re- 
fused to consider the evidence, all reeking with 
ignominy and bribery and shame, and counted in 
a man who had not received under the Constitu- 
tion and the laws the suffrages of his countrymen. 
That is a wronof that we have met here to rioht. 
Eight years have passed, that is true. We are 
told that the law has given the verdict to them; 
that is true. When a jury is in its box under the 
statute of your State and a judge upon the bench 
who holds the scales of justice unevenly, holds 
with guilty hands a parchment from the executive 
of your State, and allows the jury sitting in the 
box to condemn a man to death, under the segis 
of law, he does what all the law writers of civili- 



GA THERING OF THE HOSTS. , t -> 

zatioii for hundreds of years have cursed and 
damned as leo;al murder. Oh! the ereat sin of 
that Electoral Commission remains to-day unpun- 
ished, and will ever be unavenged so lone as the 
Republican party is In power in this country. I 
thank God tliat there is no statute of limitations 
running- in favor of that party [applause] ; and in 
that connection, my fellow-Democrats, be It said, 
to the credit of the Democratic party, that it ex- 
hibited none of that spirit of the Hotspur, and of 
that spirit which sought to engulf this country in 
war, fresh as it was from a great and fratricidal 
strucrale. 

" But our great leaders, Tilden and Hendricks 
[here the speaker was Interrupted by long-con- 
tinued applause, the delegates rising to their feet 
and waving their hats] — our great leaders, Tilden 
and Hendricks, with the dignity of heroic states- 
men, with the courage of men who love their 
country better than its pelf and Its power, ac- 
cepted the wrong and Injury of perjury and of 
fraud ; and they are grander to-day in their de- 
feat than the men who wear the power at the ex- 
pense of justice and right. Thus we have suc- 
ceeded In the face of Federal power ; we would 
have succeeded in 1880 but for Federal gold and 
Federal greenbacks, fresh and uncut, from Wash- 
ington—money earned and held by Star-route 
contractors and the loving friends of a venal Ad- 
ministration. They bought the Presidency. 



3-4 



GA T FIE RING OF THE HOSTS. 



"Fellow-Democrats, we want reform, God 
knows ! not only in the persoftnel of men but 
also in the measures of the Government. We 
want men there whose very lives and whose very 
names would be a platform to this people ; we 
want men there who shall, in all the departments 
of the Government — in its Department of Justice, 
its postal affairs, its Interior Department, every- 
where — follow its servants with the eye of the 
ministers of justice, and see that every cent that 
belonofs to the Government shall remain with the 
Government; that no tribute shall be demanded 
except the tribute that is due the Government ; 
that no assessments shall be levied upon 100,000 
office holders, who are paid ;^ 1 00,000,000 annually, 
^5,000,000 to go into a corrupt political fund. 
These, we thank God, will be corrected when the 
Democratic party shall get into power once more. 

"We read the enunciation of principles by the 
Republican party. They tell us they have civil- 
service reform, and yet they demand in the next 
breath from every Federal office-holder of the one 
hundred thousand his tribute to the corrupt fund 
that shall be paid out to the voters at the polls. 
They tell us they have a Puritan Government, and 
yet not a solitary felon has been condemned in 
the flock of those who have stolen their millions 
from the Treasury. Your Springer Committee, 
only on yesterday and the day before, tells us of 
the perjury, of the corruption, of the subornations, 



GATHERING OF THE HOS'JS. ^15 

that run all along- through the ministers of justice 
in the prosecution of the Government. We want 
real reform, a reform, my countrymen, that shall 
mean what it says and that will say what it 
means. 

"Fellow-citizens, it is not my business as your 
presiding officer to-day to enunciate anything 
that shall be embodied in your platform. But I 
wish to commend one thing in this great assem- 
blage of freemen to your Committee on Platform 
— that you endeavor to unite upon the basis of prin- 
ciples which we have advocated for the years that 
are gone, and that you will have no Delphic oracle 
speaking with double tongue in the platform which 
shall be named by you. Let the Green Mountain 
Boys of Vermont, and the men of Maine, of 
Texas, of Louisiana, and Georgia, the men from 
the Carolinas to the Golden Coast, demand that 
the Committee on Platform shall say in our noble 
vernacular of purest English tongue what they 
mean, so that the wayfaring man, though a fool, 
need not err in readino^ it. In doino" this we will 
declare against the corruptions of the Government ; 
that is, we will declare against the enormities of 
its system of civil service, its Department of so- 
called Justice, its postal service — the robbery in 
high places by men in power. It will say, more- 
over, that the burdens of the Government shall 
be placed alike, equally and equitably, upon all 
classes of our countrymen, having respect for the 



-> I 5 GATHERING OF THE HOSTS. 

greatest good to the greatest number. That the 
hundred milhons of surplus revenue shall not be 
allowed to accumulate as a corruption fund, 
and that there shall be a radical reformation and 
reduction in the taxes as well as the methods of 
taxation in our country. 

"But, fellow-citizens, in conclusion let me say 
that harmony and conciliation should rule your 
councils. There never was a time in the history 
of the Democratic party when the enemy invites 
the victory as now. The great and unnumbered 
hosts of dissatisfied men of the Republican party 
are heard in the distance — in New Entjland and in 
New York, on the lakes and in the West, and 
everywhere ; and while the Democratic party 
should not deviate one iota from its principles, it 
should with open arms say to these men (hundreds 
of thousandsGod grant there may be) : ' Here is 
the party of the Constitution and the Union, that 
loves our common country. Come hither, and go 
with us for honest rule and honest government.' 

" The Democratic party, while it may have its 
local differences, when the onset of the charge 
comes will be together ; and whoever you may 
nominate, of all the great and good names that 
are before you — from the East to the West, from 
the North to the South — he who stands back in 
the hour of peril because his own State or himself 
shall not have received the choice — yea, the choice 
of his heart — is less than a good Democrat and 



GATHERING OF THE HOSTS. -jy 

hardly a patriot in this our country's hour of 
peril. 

"The Democratic party is loyal to the Union. 
The ' bloody shirt,' in the vulgar parlance of the 
times, has at each recurring election been flaunted 
in the faces of Southern Democrats and in 
your own faces. With Logan on the ticket, I pre- 
sume it will be again. Blaine could hardly afford 
it, as he did not indulge much in that 'unpleas- 
antness.' They will endeavor to stir up the bad 
blood of the past. My countrymen, the war is 
over for a quarter of a century, and they know it. 
Why, our boys have married the young maidens 
of the North, and children have been born to 
them since those days. They will continue to go 
to the altar and stand side by side at dying beds. 
They will talk of that bourne whence no traveler 
returns, will lie down and be buried together. 
Why, the Boys in die Blue and the Gray have slept 
together for a quarter of a century upon a thou- 
sand fields of common glory. Let their bones 
alone. They are representing the best blood of 
the land, and, though differing in the days that 
should be forgotten, the good men of all parties 
in our country to-day, I thank God, have united 
in the great common progress of our race to forget 
the war memories of the war times. 

"I thank you, fellow-citizens, for your attention, 
trusting that your forbearance will be extended 
to me. What mistakes I shall make doubtless 



2iS GATHERING OF THE HOSTS. 

you will treat lightly and kindly. Hoping that 
success may crown your efforts, that you may 
send a ticket to our country upon whom all may 
unite, is the wish of him whom you have honored 
with your suffrages this day." 

The close of the address was greeted with long- 
continued and loud applause. 

The rest of the temporary organization having 
been announced, Mr. Smalley, of the National 
Committee, offered a resolution that the rules of 
the last Democratic Convention shall govern this 
body, except that in voting for candidates no State 
shall be allowed to change its vote until the roll 
of the States had been called and until every State 
had cast its vote, and thus the great Convention 
proceeded to its work. 




HON. JOHN KELLY, 
of New York. 



CHAPTER II. 

BALLOTING. 

THE first ballot for the Presidential nominee 
began near midnight on Thursday, the 
loth, and was not completed till about 
12.30 A. M. of the next day. This ballot showed 
Cleveland to be within nineteen of a majority of 
the Convention, and as a majority is regarded as 
commanding the necessary two-thirds vote by 
Democratic custom, the field had to defeat a 
second ballot or surrender to Cleveland. Fili- 
bustering was resorted to, and after a most bois- 
terous and ill-tempered ballot the motion to ad- 
journ was defeated by eleven votes. Another 
ballot was then ordered, and ofeneral confusion 
followed until another motion to adjourn to a later 
hour was got in and a call of the States demanded. 
The roll-call was about to begin when Mr. Man- 
nino-, the Cleveland leader, rose and wiselv sec- 
onded the motion to adjourn. It was of course 
carried at once, and the battle ended at i.oo a. m. 
There was an evident disposition on the part 
of the field or anti-Cleveland forces to delay and 
prevent a ballot, but Jenkins, of Wisconsin, a 
Cleveland man, forced the fight by moving a ballot 
for President which resulted as follows : 

321 



322 



BALLOTING. 



FIRST BALLOT. 



States and Territories, 


1 

u 


•6 


-0 

B 

M 


2 

s 

P 


c 

3 




w 


3 




4 
14 


14 




I 


I 




















16 

I 














5 








12 












6 














8 

lO 

28 














12 

2 


2 

I 












II 

30 

I 


I 














23 
II 


I 
5 


. 


I 
2 




















26 




13 
12 
6 

5 
14 
14 

I 
15 

8 


I 






I 


I 














10 

21 

I 


















2 
II 




























15 
10 

I 


I 
3 


I 


I 

3 
I 
6 












Nebriska 


















8 
4 
72 














3 


II 










New York, 












22 














21 
2 
5 
6 
8 
2 

II 
8 

13 
7 

12 






23 


2 






4 

2 

10 
8 
10 










55 










Rhode Island 
























I 


3 

I 


9 
4 






Texas 














9 

2 
I 


I 
2 


I 
2 


I 
2 

2 
















I 








2 

2 
2 
2 
2 

I 
2 


























































Utah 


















I 


































Totals, 


392 


170 


78 


56 


88 


3 


27 





Tilden had one vote in Tennessee, Flower had four votes in Wisconsin, and Hendricks 
had one vote in Illinois. 



BALLOTING. 



323 



It was understood when the Convention assem- 
bled on Friday morning that Randall had with- 
drawn from the contest and that most of his 
streno^th would o;o to Cleveland. 

The Convention was called to order at eleven 
o'clock, and prayer was offered by Rev. Dr. Clin- 
ton Locke, of Grace Church, Chicago. He prayed 
that the consultations of the body be for the fur- 
therance of just and equal laws, for the preservation 
of liberty, for the punishment of wrong-doers, and 
for the praise of those who do well; that every 
delegate should be kept from being guided by his 
own selfish gain, by his own pride, or his own 
likings or dislikings. He prayed that in the great 
and noble contest which was opening before the 
American people there would be a cessation from 
strife and anger; that men's eyes should not be 
blinded to that which is fair and just; that all cor- 
ruption, bribery, and illegal voting be kept far 
away, and that after the election the whole people 
may join in their support of the President. 

A motion was made that the Convention pro- 
ceed to a second ballot. Then Mr. Snowden, of 
Pennsylvania, with thanks to those who had voted 
for Samuel J. Randall, withdrew that gentleman's 
name. 

Then came the balloting, amid great confusion 
at times as favorite men were named or changes 
occurred in the votes. When all had responded 
it was evident that Cleveland led the race. 



324 



BALLOTING. 



SECOND BALLOT. 



States and Territories. 


■a 

S3 

1 


2 

§ 


>> 


E 

3 
H 


•c 

c 
u 


-0 

e 




H 




5 
14 
i6 

6 

12 


I 


14 








20 
























16 














6 


Connecticut 












12 




6 








6 


Florida * 


8 

22 

43 

30 
26 
17 

4 
15 
12 
16 

8 
23 
14 

2 

32 
9 










8 




I 


2 








24 










44 












30 


J ' 












26 






I 
21 








18 




I 
I 






26 








16 












12 


^1 .* ' , 












16 






7^2 




3 




28 




26 










14 






14 




2 




18 




32 






I 








10 


Nevada !' 




5 




6 




8 

5 
72 
22 
46 

6 
42 

7 
10 
24 
26 

8 

23 
10 
22 
2 
2 
2 
2 
2 
2 
2 
2 
2 






8 






2 




II 




18 




72 














22 














46 














6 






2 

I 
8 




II 


4 


60 




8 










i8 










24 














26 














8 










I 




24 






2 












22 














2 














2 














2 














2 














2 


Utah 












2 














2 














2 




2 
















6S3 


2 


81^ 


4 


45^ 


4 


820 







Necessary for a choice, 547. 



BALLOTING. ,27 

MADE UNANIMOUS. 

A motion was next made to make the nomina- 
tion unanimous, and it was carried triumphantly. 
Then the mammoth oil painting representation of 
Cleveland's head and bust was carried in front of 
the speaker's stand and exhibited to the enthusi- 
astic spectators, who greeted it with cheers and 
whistling and the waving of everything that could 
be put into requisition for that purpose, while the 
band was playing " Marching Through Georgia," 
"The Red, White, and Blue," and other airs. After 
order was restored the Chair announced that the 
motion to make the nomination unanimous havino- 
been carried, Grover Cleveland was declared the 
nominee of the National Democracy for the next 
Presidency of the United States. [Cheers.] A 
dispatch was read from Governor Hoadly, con- 
gratulating the Convention, the Democracy, and 
the country on the wise thing done, and prom- 
ising a Democratic victory in Ohio in October and 
November next. 

The Convention at 1.25 took a recess until 5 
p. M. Upon reassembling several parties were 
put in nomination for the Vice-Presidency, but 
one after the other the candidates were with- 
drawn, until only Hendricks was left. People 
could not cheer enough. The call of the roll 
gave Hendricks every vote in the Convention. 

The scene which ensued was beyond description. 
Almost every one in the immense hall rose to his 



328 



BALLOTING. 



feet and swunofhis hat and cheered. The standards 
of New York and Indiana were torn from their 
fastenings and borne to the spaces in front of the 
chair. These were soon speedily followed by the 
standards of the other States until the whole 
thirty-eight were held aloft together. Then began 
a march about the hall, deleo;ates fallins^ into line* 
with arms about each other. The bands in the 
music galle-rywere turned on and a scene exceed- 
ing anything known to the late Republican Con- 
vention was enacted. It was a vivid reminder of 
the incidents followino; the Garfield nomination 
four years ago. As the procession moved a 
thousand voices with the band accompaniment 
started "Auld Lang Syne," and other thousands, 
with ladies all over the hall, took up the chorus. 
New York and Indiana were saluted by the pro- 
cession of States as it went around. The Cleve- 
land men were delighted with the result and 
showed it. The Indiana men became enthusiastic 
and joined the enthusiastic shouters. The chorus 
was changed from "Auld Lang Syne" to "Sweet 
Home." The Convention had done its work and 
the people were glad to get away. 



iiiiiiipsiiiai 




CHAPTER III. 

THE PLATFORM. 

OF course a platform must be laid on which 
the party is to stand in a figurative sense, 
and from which the orators are to declaim 
in favor of their respective leaders. The plat- 
form of the Democratic Convention was fully 
discussed and finally adopted as follows : 

THE PLATFORM. 

The Democratic party of the Union, through its represen- 
tatives in national convention assembled, recognizes that, as 
the nation grows older, new issues are born of time and i)ro- 
gress and old issues perish. But the fundamental principles 
of the Democracy, approved by the united voice of the 
people, remain, and will ever remain, as the best and only 
security for the continuance of free government. The pre- 
servation of personal rights, the equality of all citizens before 
the law, the reserved rights of the States and the supremacy 
of the Federal Government within the limits of the Consti- 
tution, will ever form the true basis of our liberties and can 
never be surrendered without destroying that balance of 
rights and powers which enables a continent to be developed 
in peace and social order to be maintained by means of local 
self-government. But it is indispensable for the practical 
operation and enforcement of these fundamental principles 
that the Government should not always be controlled by one 
political power. Frequent change of administration is as 

33^ 






THE FLATFORM. 



necessary as constant recurrence to the popular will. Other- 
wise abuses grow and the Government, instead of being car- 
ried on for the general welfare, becomes an instrumentality 
for imposing heavy burdens on the many who are governed 
for the benefit of the few who govern. Public servants thus 
become arbitrary rulers. 

A CHANGE DEMANDED. 

This is now the condition of the country, hence a change 
is demanded. The Republican party, so far as principle is 
concerned, is a reminiscence. In practice it is an organiza- 
tion for enriching those who control its machinery. The 
frauds and jobbery which have been brought to light in every 
department of the Government are sufficient to have called 
for reform within the Republican party, yet those in author- 
ity, made reckless by the long possession of power, have suc- 
cumbed to its corrupting influence and have placed in 
nomination a ticket against which the independent portion 
of the party are in open revolt. 

Therefore a change is demanded. Such a change was alike 
necessary in 1876, but the will of the people was then 
defeated by a fraud which can never be forgotten nor con- 
doned. Again in 1880 the change demanded by the people 
was defeated by the lavish use of money contributed by 
miscrupulous contractors and shameless jobbers who had 
bargained for unlawful profits or for high office. 

REPUBLICAN FAILURES. 

The Republican party, during its legal, its stolen, and its 
bought tenures of power, has steadily decayed in moral char- 
acter and political capacity. Its platform promises are now 
a list of its past failures. It demands the restoration of our 
navy ; it has squandered hundreds of millions to create a 
navy that does not exist. It calls upon Congress to remove 
the burdens under which American shii)ping has been de- 
pressed ; it imposed and has continued those burdens. It 
professes the policy of reserving the public lands for small 



THE PLATFORM. -i^^ 

holdings by actual settlers ; it has given away the people's 
heritage till now a few railroads and non-resident aliens, indi- 
vidual and corporate, possess a larger area than that of all our 
farms between the two seas. It professes a preference for free 
institutions ; it organized and tried to legalize a control of 
State elections by Federal troops. It professes a desire to 
elevate labor ; it has subjected American workingmen to the 
competition of convict and imported contract labor. It pro- 
fesses gratitude to all who were disabled or died in the war, 
leaving widows and orphans ; it left to a Democratic House of 
Representatives the first effort to equalize both bounties and 
pensions. It proffers a pledge to correct the irregularities of 
our tariff; it created and has continued them. Its own Tar- 
iff Commission confessed the need of more than twenty per 
cent, reduction ; its Congress gave a reduction of less than 
four per cent. It professes the protection of American man- 
ufactures ; it has subjected them to an increasing flood of 
manufactured goods and a hopeless competition with manu- 
facturing nations, not one of which taxes raw materials. It 
professes to protect all American industries ; it has impover- 
ished many to subsidize a few. It professes the protection of 
American labor ; it has depleted the returns of American 
agriculture, an industry followed by half of our people. It 
professes the equality of men before the law ; attempting to 
fix the status of colored citizens, the acts of its Congress 
were overset by the decisions of its Court. It "accepts anew 
the duty of leading in the work of progress and reform;" its 
caught criminals are permitted to escape through continued 
delays or actual connivance in the prosecution. 

Honeycombed with corruption, outbreaking exposures no 
longer shock its moral sense. Its honest members, its inde- 
pendent journals, no longer maintain a successful contest for 
authority in its counsels or a veto upon bad nominations. 

That change is necessary is proved by an existing surplus 
of more than one hundred million dollars, which has yearly 
been collected from a suffering people. Unnecessary taxa- 



334 ^'-^^^ PLATPORM. 

tion is unjust taxation. We denounce the Republican party 
for having failed to relieve the people from crushing war 
taxes, which have paralyzed business, crippled industry, and 
deprived labor of employment and of just reward. 

REDUCING TAXATION. 

The Democracy pledges itself to purify the Administration 
from corruption, to restore economy, to revive respect for 
law, and to reduce taxation to the lowest limit consistent with 
due regard to the preservation of the faith of the nation to its 
creditors and pensioners. Knowing full well, however, that 
legislation affecting the occupations of the people should be 
cautious and conservative in method, not in advance of pub- 
lic opinion, but responsive to its demands, the Democratic 
party is pledged to revise the tariff in a spirit of fairness to all 
interests. But in making reduction in taxes it is not pro- 
posed to injure any domestic industries, but rather to pro- 
mote their healthy growth. From the foundation of this 
Government taxes collected at the Custom House have been 
the chief source of Federal revenue ; such they must continue 
to be. Moreover, many industries have come to rely upon 
legislation for successful continuance, so that any change of 
law must be at every step regardful of the labor and capital 
thus involved. The process of reform must be subject in the 
execution to this plain dictate of justice. 

LABOR MUST BE PROTECTED. 

All taxation shall be limited to the requirements of econo- 
mical government. The necessary reduction in taxation can 
and must be effected without depriving American labor of the 
ability to compete successfully with foreign labor and without 
imposing lower rates of duty than will be ample to cover any 
increased cost of production which may exist in consequence 
of the higher rate of wages prevailing in this country. Suffi- 
cient revenue to pay all the expenses of the Federal Govern- 
ment economically administered, including pensions, interest, 
and principal of the public debt, can be got under our present 



THE PLATFORM. 



335 



iiystem of taxation from Custom-House taxes on fewer im- 
ported articles, bearing heaviest on articles of luxury and 
bearing lightest on articles of necessity. 

We therefore denounce the abuses of the 'existing tariff, and 
subject to the preceding limitations we demand that Federal 
taxation shall be exclusively for public purposes and shall not 
exceed the needs of the Government economically admin- 
istered. 

The system of direct taxation, known as the " internal 
revenue," is a war tax, and so long as the law continues the 
money derived therefrom should be sacredly devoted to the 
relief of the people from the remaining burdens of the war, 
and be made a fund to defray the expense of the care and 
comfort of worthy soldiers disabled in the line of duty in the 
wars of the Republic, and for the payment of such pensions as 
Congress may, from time to time, grant to such soldiers, a 
like fund for the sailors having been already provided j and 
any surplus should be paid into the Treasury. 

A CONTINENTAL POLICY. 

We favor an American continental policy based upon more 
intimate commercial and political relations with the fifteen 
sister Republics of North, Central, and South America, but 
entangling alliances with none. 

We believe in honest money, the gold and silver coinage 
of the Constitution, and a circulating medium convertible 
into such money without loss. 

Asserting the equality of all men before the law, we hold 
that it is the duty of the Government, in its dealings with the 
people, to mete out equal and exact justice to all citizens of 
whatever nativity, race, color, or persuasion, religious or 
political. 

We believe in a free ballot and a fair count, and we recall 
to the memory of the people the noble struggle of the Demo- 
crats in the Forty-fifth and Forty-sixth Congresses, by which 
a reluctant Republican opposition was compelled to assent to 
legislation making everywhere illegal the presence of troops 



2>Z^ 



THE PLATFORM. 



at the polls, as the conclusive proof that a Democratic Ad- 
ministration will preserve liberty with order. 

The selection of Federal officers for the Territories should 
be restricted to citizens previously resident therein. 

We oppose sumptuary laws which vex the citizen and inter- 
fere with individual liberty; we favor honest civil service 
reforms and the compensation of all United States officers 
by fixed salaries ; the separation of Church and State, and 
the diffusion of free education by common schools, so that 
every child in the lacid may be taught the rights and duties 
of citizenship. 

While we favor all legislation which will tend to the equita- 
ble distribution of property, to the prevention of monopoly 
and to strict enforcement of individual rights against cor- 
porate abuses, we hold that the welfare of society depends 
upon a scrupulous regard for the rights of property as defined 
by law. We believe that labor is best rewarded where it is 
freest and most enlightened. It should therefore be fostered 
and cherished. We favor the repeal of all laws restricting 
the free action of labor, and the enactment of laws by which 
labor organizations may be incorporated, and of all such 
legislation as will tend to enlighten the people as to the true 
relation of capital and labor. 

LAND GRANTS. 

We believe that the public land ought as far as possible to 
be kept as homesteads for actual settlers ; that all unearned 
lands heretofore improvidently granted to railroad corpora- 
tions by the action of the Republican party should be restored 
to the public domain, and that no more grants of land shall 
be made to corporations or to be allowed to fall into the 
ownership of alien absentees. 

We are opposed to all propositions which, upon any pre- 
text, would convert the General Government into a machine 
for collecting taxes to be distributed among the States or the 
citizens thereof. 



THE PLATFORM. 



Z1 



In reaffirming the declarations of the Democratic platform 
of 1856, that " the liberal principles embodied by Jefferson 
in the Declaration of Independence and sanctioned in the 
Constitution, which make ours the land of liberty and the 
asylum of the oppressed of every nation, have ever been 
cardinal principles in the Democratic faith," we nevertheless 
do not sanction the importation of foreign labor or the ad- 
mission of servile races unfitted by habits, training, religion 
or kindred for absorption into the great body of our people 
or for the citizenship which our laws confer. American 
civilization demands that against the immigration or impor- 
tation of Mongolians to these shores our gates be closed. 

FOREIGN POLICY. 

The Democratic party insists that it is the duty of the 
Government to protect with equal fidelity and vigilance the 
rights of its citizens, native and naturalized, at home and 
abroad, and to the end that this protection may be assured 
United States papers of naturalization issued by courts of 
competent jurisdiction must be respected by the executive 
and legislative departments of our own Government and by 
all foreign powers. It is an imperative duty of this Govern- 
ment to efficiently protect all the rights of persons and prop- 
erty of every American citizen in foreign lands, and demand 
and enforce full reparation for any invasion thereof. An 
American citizen is only responsible to his own Government 
for any act done in his own country or under her flag, and 
can only be tried therefor on her own soil and according to 
her laws, and no power exists in this Government to expatriate 
an American citizen to be tried in any foreign land for any 
such act. 

This country has never had a well-defined and executed 
foreign policy save under Democratic administration. That 
policy has ever been in regard to foreign nations, so long as 
they do not act detrimental to the interests of the country 
or hurtful to our citizens, to let them alone ; that as the result 
of this policy we recall the acquisition of Louisiana, Horida, 



^r>g THE PLAiFOkM. 

California, and of the adjacent Mexican territory by pllf- 
chase alone, and contrast these grand acquisitions of Demo- 
cratic statesmanship with the purchase of Alaska, the sole 
fruit of a Republican administration of nearly a quarter of a 
century. 

The Federal Government should care for and improve the 
Mississippi River and other great waterways of the Republic 
so as to secure for the interior States easy and cheap transpor- 
tation to tidewater. 

AN AMERICAN POLICY DEMANDED. 

Under a long period of Democratic rule and policy our 
merchant marine was fast overtaking and on the point of out- 
stripping that of Great Britain. Under twenty years of Re- 
publican rule and policy our commerce has been left to British 
bottoms and almost has the American flag been swept off the 
high seas. Instead of the Republican party's British policy 
we demand for the people of the United States an American 
policy. Under Democratic rule and policy our merchants 
and sailors, flying the Stars and Stripes in every port, success- 
fully searched out a market for the varied products of Ameri- 
can industry ; under a quarter of a century of Republican 
rule and policy, despite our manifest advantages over all other 
nations in high paid labor, favorable climates, and teeming 
soils, despite freedom of trade among all these United States, 
despite their population by the foremost races of men and an 
annual immigration of the young, thrifty, and adventurous 
of all nations, despite our freedom here from the inherited 
burdens of life and industry in old world monarchies, their 
costly war navies, their vast tax-consuming, non-producing 
standing armies, despite twenty years of peace, that Repub- 
lican rule and policy have managed to surrender to Great 
Britain along with our commerce the control of the markets 
of the world. 

Instead of the Republican party's British policy we de- 
mand, in behalf of the American Democracy, an American 
policy. Instead of the Republican party's discredited scheme 



THE PL A TFORM. -, >,q 

and false pretence of friendship for American labor, expressed 
by imposing taxes, we demand in behalf of the Democracy, 
freedom for American labor by reducing taxes to the end that 
these United States may compete with unhindered powers 
for the primacy among nations in all the arts of peace and 
fruits of liberty. 

TILDEN. 

With profound regret we have been apprised by the vener- 
able statesman through whose person was struck that blow at 
the vital principle of Republics — acquiescence in the will of 
the majority — that he cannot permit us again to place in his 
hands the leadership of the Democratic hosts for the reason 
that the achievement of reform in the Administration of the 
Federal Government is an undertaking now too heavy for his 
age and failing strength. Rejoicing that his life has been 
prolonged until the general judgment of our fellow-country- 
men is united in the wish that wrong were righted in his 
person, for the Democracy of the United States we offer to 
him in his withdrawal from public cares not only our respect- 
ful sympathy and esteem, but also that best homage of free- 
men — the pledge of our devotion to the principles and the 
cause now inseparable in the history of the Republic from the 
labors and the name of Samuel J. Tilden. 

With this statement of the hopes, principles, and purposes 
of the Democratic party, the great issue of reform and 
change in administration is submitted to the people in calm 
confidence that the popular voice will pronounce in favor of 
new men and new and more favorable conditions for the 
growth of industry, the extension of trade, the employment 
and due reward of labor and of capital and the general wel- 
fare of the whole country. 

After the above was presented by Mr. Morrison, 
Chairman of the Committe on Platform, " Ben " 
Butler presented and spoke upon a minority 



^^o THE PLATFORM. 

report from himself alone. It was not accepted, 
but the platform as presented by the majority of 
the committee was approved, on a vote of 714^2 
to 97^, amid great applause. Butler's rejected 
plank was as follows: 

Resolved, That no taxes, direct or indirect, can be right- 
fully imposed upon the people except to meet the expenses of 
an economically administered Government. To bring taxa- 
tion down to this point is true administrative revenue reform. 
The people will tolerate direct taxation for the ordinary ex- 
penses of the Government only in case of dire necessity or 
war, therefore the revenue necessary for such expenses should 
be raised by customs duties upon imports after the manner of 
our fathers. In levying such taxes two principles should be 
carefully observed : First, that all materials used in the arts 
and manufactures and the necessaries of life not produced in 
this country shall come free, and that all articles of luxury 
should be taxed as high as possible up to the collection point ; 
second, that in imposing customs duties the law must be care- 
fully adjusted to promote American enterprise and industries, 
not to create monopolies, and to cherish and foster American 
labor. 



PRINCIPLES 



Democratic Party, 



PRINCIPLES 



DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE PRINCIPLES OF WASHINGTON. 

"T T TASHINGTON lived before the days 
\ /\ / of party politics. He exemplified his 
^ principles by his conduct, whether at 
the head of the army or of the civil Administra- 
tion. He had studied well the principles of free 
governments in former ages and was well 
grounded in the faith. In his Farewell Address to 
the American people he left a legacy any party 
might well be proud of. Not because he was at 
the head of a so-called Democratic or Republican 
or any party, but because the few fundamental 
principles upon which rested the perpetuity of the 
Union which he announced have always been a 
part of the faith of the Democracy, does it be- 
come appropriate here to insert those principles. 
No person can be a sound Democrat who cannot 
give unqualified assent to them. In substance he 
announced the following principles : 

343 



344 



DEMO CRA TIC PRINCIPL ES. 



"The union of the government is the main 
pillar in the edifice of our real independence: 
the support of our tranquillity at home, our peace 
abroad ; of our safety and our prosperity, yea, of 
the very liberty all so highly prize." 

He warned his countrymen that from different 
causes and from different quarters great pains 
would be taken (as was the case three-quarters 
of a century after that), and many artifices would 
be employed to weaken in the minds of the 
people the conviction of this great truth. He 
told them that this was a point in their political 
fortress ao^ainst which the batteries of internal and 
external enemies would most constantly and most 
actively, though covertly and insidiously, direct 
their assaults. 

He entreated them to cherish a cordial, habitual, 
and immovable attachment to the Union, accus- 
toming them to think and speak of it as the pal- 
ladium of their political safety and prosperity, 
watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety, 
discountenancing- whatever miofht even suofofest a 
suspicion that it could in any event be abandoned, 
and Indignantly frown upon the first dawning of 
every attempt to alienate any portion of our coun- 
trymen from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred 
ties which link together the various parts of our 
common country. 

Whether he called himself a Democrat or not 
makes no difference, this principle of cherishing 



DEMOCRA TIC PRINCIPLES. -, . cr 

an absolute devotion to the existence of the Union 
under one form of o-overnment is a sacred Demo- 
cratic principle that must be subscribed to by 
every citizen of this great Republic who aspires 
to be called an American Democrat. It is be- 
cause Democrats have ever entertained the same 
convictions and (save by the men who called 
themselves Democrats, but had forgotten or dis- 
regarded the warning voice of Washington, and 
went into a rebellion against the Government, 
thereby seeking to destroy the Union) have ever 
been true to these principles, and above all other 
parties most profoundly impressed with the truth 
of this doctrine, that many of the most thought- 
ful men have ever been Democrats. 

Washington sought by most cogent arguments 
to impress upon his countrymen that all parts of 
the country, North, South, East, and West, had a 
common destiny and a common interest in the 
general welfare of every other section, and be- 
cause each added strength and security to the 
other, and in this sense the Union was the main 
prop of our liberties, so that the love for one 
should endear to the people the preservation of 
the other, and thus become the primary object of 
patriotic desire. 

Democrats believe all this ; and though the party 
itself became distracted and many of its adher- 
ents were dragged into a rebellion, still, so soon 
as military force was overcome and the conviction 



346 



DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES. 



of the mind could be freely exercised, even those 
again became as ardently attached to the Union 
as any other portion of our people, and since the 
close of the war have sought, by every means 
within their power, to bring together and bind 
more closely the whole people of this Union in 
the bonds of a fraternal brotherhood of States. 

Washington warned his countrymen against sec- 
tionalism. He cautioned them that desiijning- 
men, as they ever have, would endeavor to excite 
a belief that there was a real difference of local 
interests and views. He said one of the expedi- 
ents of partyisms would be to acquire influence 
in one particular section by misrepresenting the 
opinions and aims of another section, and that 
they could not shield themselves too much against 
the jealousies and heart-burnings aroused by 
these misrepresentations, tending to alienate the 
sections from each other instead of binding them 
more closely together with fraternal regard and 
affection, bringing about the opposite result. It 
is because we have seen the Democratic party en- 
deavoring by every possible means in its power 
to inculcate these same great truths, while its op- 
ponents have conducted themselves toward one 
section precisely in the way and manner suggested 
by Washington men would, that they are forced 
to be Democrats when true to their convictions 
of right. 

He cautioned his countrymen against heaping 



DEMOCRATIC PkWClPLES. 



347 



Up public debts for posterity to pay, thus ungen- 
erously throwing upon them burdens which we 
ourselves should pay. This whole business of 
bonded indebtedness is undemocratic and ought 
not to be indulged in if by any means it can be 
avoided. It is true that men calling themselves 
Democrats have been led astray by the plausible 
arguments of those who regarded "public debts 
as public blessings," still the Democratic party, as 
such, has ever denounced the practice, and be- 
cause they have always coincided with him in this 
particular they are Democrats. 

Against the insidious wiles of foreisfn influence, 
he conjured his fellow-citizens, their jealousy 
ought to be constantly awake. Numerous oppor- 
tunities would be offered, he said, to tamper with 
domestic factions, to practice the arts of seduction, 
to mislead public opinion, to Influence public coun- 
cils. 

No attachment, therefore, for one nation to the 
exclusion of another should be tolerated. 

Such conduct would lead to concessions to one 
nation and denials of privileges to others, and 
would Invite a multitude of evils upon us. 

It is because this has been a fundamental prin- 
ciple of the Democratic party, who most heartily 
believe In the doctrine, hence they are Democrats. 

Washington also advised his countrymen to re- 
sist with care the spirit of innovation upon the 
principles on which the Government was founded, 



348 



DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES. 



however specious the pretext might be. One 
method of assault would be, he said, to effect 
under the forms of the Constitution alterations 
which would impair the whole system. It is be- 
cause the Democratic party, impressed by the 
truth of these teachings of Washington, has op- 
posed the numerous amendm.ents constantly being 
proposed that they are Democrats, believing that 
in this they adhere more strictly to the teachings 
of Washington than any other party. 



A 



CHAPTER II. 

THE PRINCIPLES OF JEFFERSON. 

LTHOUGH in his time not called "a 
Democrat," yet the leader of what was 
then known as the Republican party, con- 
tending against the Federal, or strong govern- 
ment party, Thomas Jefferson was perhaps one 
of the best expounders of those principles now 
held by the Democratic party among all of those 
Revolutionary sages. 

In his writings and official messages as Presi- 
dent we find the most frequent allusions to and 
rigid application of them in the administration of 
public affairs, so that he has been called " the 
father of the Democratic party." It was pecu- 



DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES. ^^q 

liarly appropriate that he should do so, because, 
though early in the history of our Government 
yet, anti-democratic principles were already slowly 
creeping into the administration of public affairs 
under the Administration of the elder Adams, so 
that it required vigorous opposition and deter- 
mined application to bring the Government back 
once more to be administered in accordance with 
those pure principles of a representative demo- 
cratic o-overnment. 

In his inaugural address, delivered to Congress 
on March 4th, 1801, the commencement as well 
of a new century as of a new era in our govern- 
ment, President Jefferson announced the follow- 
ing fundamental doctrines of democracy, which, 
he said, he deemed essential principles of our 
Government, which should guide him in its admin- 
istration. He compressed them within the 
smallest possible compass, stating only the gen- 
eral principles, but not all their limitations : 

First. Equal and exact justice to all men of what- 
ever State or persuasion, religious or political. 

Second. Peace, commerce, and honest friend- 
ship with all nations; entangling alliance with 
none. 

Third. The support of the State govern- 
ments in all their rights as the most competent 
administrators of our domestic concerns and the 
surest bulwarks against anti-republican tenden- 
cies. 



so. 



DEMOCRA TIC PRlMCrPLES. 



Fourth. The preservation of the General Gov- 
ernment in its whole constitutional vigor as the 
sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety 
abroad. 

Fifth. A jealous care of the right of election 
by the people, a mild and safe corrective of 
abuses, which are lopped by the sword of revolu- 
tion where peaceable means are unprovided. 

Sixth. Absolute acquiescence in the decisions 
of the majority, the vital principles of republics, 
from which is no appeal but to force, the vital 
principle and immediate parent of despotism. 

Seventh. A well-disciplined militia, our best 
reliance in peace, and for the first moments of 
war, till regulars may relieve them. 

Eighth. The supremacy of the civil over the 
military authority. 

Ninth. Economy in the public expenses, that 
labor may be lightly burdened. 

Tenth. The honest payment of our debts and 
the sacred preservation of the public faith. 

Eleventh. Encouraofement of ao-riculture and 
of commerce as its handmaid. 

Twelfth. The diffusion of information and 
arraignment of all abuses at the bar of public 
reason. 

Thirteenth. Freedom of religion. 

Fourteenth. Freedom of the press. 

Fifteenth. Freedom of the person under the 
protection of the habeas corpus. 



DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES. -^ r i 

Sixteenth. Trial by juries impartially selected. 

" These principles," said Jefferson, " form the 
brio-ht constellation which has ofone before us and 
guided our steps through the age of revolution 
and reformation. The wisdom of our saees and 
the blood of our heroes have been devoted to 
their attainment. They should be the creed of 
our political faith, the text of civic instruction, 
the touchstone by which to try the services of 
those we trust ; and should we wander from them 
in moments of error or alarm, let us hasten to 
retrace our steps and to regain the road which 
alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety." 

It is because Democrats believe every one of 
those fundamental principles to be true that they 
are Democrats. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE PRINCIPLES OF MADISON. 

DEMOCRATS beheve in a full, unequivocal, 
and hearty support of the Constitution, in 
a strict construction of it, and in the spirit 
and the purpose for which it was formed, and in 
Madison, also, who took such a deep interest in 
its formation as to be called "the father of the 
Constitution," they have another exponent of sound 
Democratic principles. 



1--2 DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES. 

He knew well the principles on which that Con- 
stitution was founded. He had studied the rise, 
progress, decay, and fall, of every free govern- 
ment which had gone before, and, profiting by the 
very misfortunes of other nations, he had secured 
in the adoption of our Constitution such principles 
as he fondly believed would prevent us as a people 
from falling into similar errors. Standing upon 
the threshold of his great office as President of 
the United States, succeeding Jefferson, he an- 
nounced the following as additional principles 
vital to the welfare of the American people in 
their intercourse with foreign nations. They were 
in part but the echoes which came from the lips 
of Washington and Jefferson and became the 
policy of the Democratic party ever since. He 
announced them as follows : 

First. To cherish peace and friendly intercourse 
with all nations having a corresponding disposi- 
tion. 

Second. To maintain sincere neutrality toward 
belligerent nations. 

Third. To prefer in all cases amicable discus- 
sions and reasonable accommodation of differences 
to a decision of them by an appeal to arms. 

Fourth. To exclude foreign intrigues and for- 
eign partialities, so degrading to all countries and 
so baneful to free ones. 

Fifth. To foster a spirit of independence, too 
just to invade the rights of others, too proud to 



DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES. 



353 



surrender our own, too liberal to indulge unwor- 
thy prejudices ourselves, and too elevated not to 
look down upon them in others. 

Sixth. To hold the Union of the States as the 
basis of their peace and happiness. 

Seventh. To support the Constitution, which is 
the cement of the Union, as well in its limitations 
as in its authorities. 

Eighth. To respect the rights and authorities 
reserved to the States and the people as equally 
incorporated with and essential to the success of 
the general system. 

Ninth. To avoid the slightest interferences with 
the rio-hts of conscience or the functions of reli- 
gion, so wisely exempted from civil jurisdiction. 

Tenth. To preserve in their full energy the 
salutary provisions in behalf of private and per- 
sonal rights and the freedom of the press. 

Eleventh. To observe economy in public ex- 
penditures. 

Twelfth. To liberate public resources by an 
honorable discharge of the public debts. 

Thirteenth. To keep within the requisite limits 
a standing military force, always remembering 
that an armed and trained militia is the firmest 
bulwark of republics. 

Fourteenth. That without standing armies, their 
liberties can never be in danger, nor with large 
ones, safe. 

Ei/teenth. To promote, by authorized means, 



^r^ iDiEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES. 

improvements friendly to agriculture, to commerce 
to manufactures, and to external as well as inter- 
nal commerce. 

Sixteenth. To favor, in like manner, the ad- 
vancement of science and diffusion of information 
as the best aliment of true liberty. 

Seventeenth. To carry on benevolent plans for 
the conversion of our aboriginal neighbors from 
the deofradation and wretchedness of savage life 
to a participation of the improvements of which 
the human mind and manners are susceptible in 
a civilized state. 

In one of his messages he also laid down the 
principle that a well-instructed people alone can 
be permanently free, all of which Democrats de- 
voutly believe. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE PRINCIPLES OF JACKSON. 

IN the principles of Andrew Jackson the De- 
mocracy take great pride. From his inaugu- 
ral address, on March 4th, A. D. 1829, to the 
close of his Administration of eight years, in every 
messaofe to Congress he uttered Democratic sen- 
timents in a terse, vigorous style, which, on ac- 
count of their self-evident truth, deeply rooted 
themselves in American hearts and became the 



DEMOCRA TIC rRINCIPLES. 



35: 



principles of the Democratic party, which during 
his Administration first took that name and which 
it has held ever since. They are found scattered 
all through his messages, and were his guide in 
deciding all questions of national policy, so many 
of which pressed themselves upon him during his 
term of office. From these the following may be 
selected and placed in order, which should be 
thoroughly studied and applied to all questions 
which may even now arise. 

First. He said; "Regard should be had for the 
rights of the several States, taking care not to 
confound the powers reserved to them with those 
they had in the Constitution granted to the Gen- 
eral Government. 

Second. In every aspect of the case advan- 
tage must result from strict and faithful economy 
in the administration of public affairs. 

Third. He declared the unnecessary duration 
of the public debt incompatible with real inde- 
pendence. 

Fourth. In the adjustment of a tariff for reve- 
nue, he insisted that a spirit of equity, caution, and 
compromise requires the great interests of agri- 
culture, manufactures, and commerce to be equally 
favored. 

Fifth. He admitted the policy of internal im- 
provements to be wise only in so far as they could 
be promoted by constitutional acts of the General 
Government. 



^ ^ /c DEMOCRA TIC PRINCIPLES. 

Sixth. He declared standing armies to be dan- 
gerous to free government, and that the mihtary 
should be in strict subordination to the civil power. 

Seventh. He declared the national militia to 
be the bulwark of our national defense. In en- 
forcing this principle, he declared that so long as 
the Government was administered for the orood of 
the people and regulated by their will; so long as 
it secured to the people the rights of person and 
of property, liberty of conscience and of the press, 
the Government would be worth defending, and 
so long as it was worth defending the patriotic 
militia would cover it with an impenetrable csgis. 

Eighth. He pledged himself to the work of 
reform in the Administration, so that the patronage 
of the General Government, which had been 
brought into conflict with the freedom of elections 
and had disturbed the rightful course of appoint- 
ments by continuing in power unfaithful and in- 
competent public servants, should no longer be 
used for that purpose. 

Ninth. He declared his belief in the principle 
that the integrity and zeal of public officers would 
advance the interests of the public service more 
than mere numbers. 

Tenth. He declared the right of the people to 
elect a President, and that it was never designed 
that their choice should in any case be defeated 
by the intervention of agents, enforcing this 
principle by saying, what experience had amply 



DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES. -^r^ 

proved, that in proportion as agents were multi- 
plied to execute the will of the people, there was 
the danger increased that their wishes would 
be frustrated. Some may be unfaithful — all liable 
to err. So far, then, as the people were con- 
cerned it was better for them to express their own 
will. 

Eleventh. The majority should govern. No 
President elected by a minority could so success- 
fully discharge his duties as he who knew he was 
supported by the majority of the people. 

Twelfth. He advocated rotation in office. Cor- 
ruption, he said, would spring up among those in 
power, and therefore he thought appointments 
should not be made for a longer period than four 
years. Everybody had equal right to office, and 
he favored removals as a leading principle which 
would give healthful action to the political system. 

Thirteenth. He advocated unfettered com- 
merce, free from restrictive tariff laws, leaving it 
to flow into those natural channels in which indi- 
vidual enterprise, always the surest and safest 
guide, might direct it. 

Fourteefith. He opposed specific tariffs, be- 
cause subject to frequent changes, generally pro- 
duced by selfish motives, and under such influ- 
ences could never be just and equal. 

Fifteenth. The proper fostering of manufac- 
tures and commerce tended to increase the value 
of agricultural products. 



^c8 DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES. 

Sixteenth. In cases of real doubt as to matters 
of mere public policy he advocated a direct ap- 
peal to the people, the source of all power, as the 
most sacred of all obligations and the wisest and 
most safe course to pursue. 

Seventeenth. He advocated a just and equita- 
ble bankrupt law as beneficial to the country at 
large, because after the means to discharge debts 
had entirely been exhausted, not to discharge 
them only served to dispirit the debtor, sink him 
into a state of apathy, make him a useless drone 
in society, or a vicious member of it, if not a feel- 
ing witness of the rigor and inhumanity of his 
country. Oppressive debt being the bane of en- 
terprise it should be the care of the Republic not 
to exert a grinding power over misfortune and 
poverty. 

Eighteenth. He declared in favor of the prin- 
ciple that no money should be expended until first 
appropriated for the purpose by the Legislature. 
The people paid the taxes, and their direct repre- 
sentatives should alone have the right to say what 
they should be taxed for, in what sums, and how 
and when it should be paid. 

Nineteenth. He utterly opposed the system of 
Government aiding private corporations in mak- 
ing internal improvements. It was deceptive and 
conducive of improvidence in the expenditure of 
public moneys. For this purpose appropriations 
could be obtained with greater facilities, granted 



DEMOCRA TIC PRINCIPLES. 



159 



with inadequate security, and frequently compli- 
cated the administration of Government. 

Twentieth, The operations of the General Gov- 
ernment should be strictly confined to the few- 
simple but important objects for which it was origi- 
nally designed. 

1 wenty-jirst. He favored the veto power in the 
Executive, but only lo be exercised in cases of at- 
tempted violation of the Constitution, or in cases 
next to it in importance. 

Twenty-second, He advocated State rights as 
far as consistent with the riofhtful action of the 
General Government as the very best means of 
preserving harmony between them; and pro- 
nounced this the true faith, and the one to which 
might be mainly attributed the success of the en- 
tire system, and to which alone we must look for 
stabiHty in it. 

1 wenty-third. He advocated "a uniform and 
sound currency," but doubted the constitutionality 
and expediency of a National Bank; and after- 
wards made his Administration famous by suc- 
cessfully opposing the renewal of its charter. 

Iwenty-foici'th. Precious metals as the only cur- 
rency known to the Constitution. Their peculiar 
properties rendered them the standard of values 
in other countries, and had been adopted in this. 
The experience of the evils of paper money had 
made it so obnoxious in the past that the framers 
of the Constitution had forbidden its adoption as 
the Icigal-tf-nder rurrcncv of the country. 



36o 



DEMOCRA TIC PRINCIPLES. 



Variableness must ever be the characteristic of 
a currency not based upon those metals. Expan- 
sion and contraction, without regard to principles 
which reo-ulate the value of those metals as a 
standard in the general trade of the world, were, 
he said, extremely pernicious. 

Where these properties are not infused into the 
circulation, and do not control it, prices must vary 
according to the tide of the issue; the value and 
stability of property exposed, uncertainty attend 
the administration of institutions constantly liable 
to temptations of an interest distinct from that of 
the community at large, all this attended by loss 
to the laboring class, who have neither time nor 
opportunity to watch the ebb and flow of the 
money market. 

Twenty-fifth. He renews his advocacy of a 
cheerful compliance with the will of the majority; 
and the exercise of the power as expressed in a 
spirit of moderation, justice and brotherly kind- 
ness as the best means to cement and forever pre- 
serve the Union. Those, he closes, who advocate 
sentiments adverse to those expressed, however 
honest, are, in effect, the worst enemies of their 
country. 



DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES. -gj 

CHAPTER V. 

THE PRINCIPLE OF STATE RIGHTS. 

THE rights of the States under our Federal 
Constitution has long been a question 
discussed on which great differences of 
opinion have arisen, even within the Democratic 
party itself. The view held by Andrew Jackson 
is the one always prevailing in National Conven- 
tions, the only body having power to settle the 
question for the whole party, viz. : that the Gen- 
eral Government is one of expressly granted 
powers, in the exercise of which it is supreme ; 
that these powers, faithfully and vigorously carried 
out, are necessary to the general welfare of the 
whole ; that all powers not expressly granted in 
tlie Constitution to the Federal Government, in 
the language of that instrument itself, are re- 
served to the States and to the people. 

The Republican party at the time of its organi- 
zation planted itself on this doctrine ; and in their 
platform at Chicago, when Abraham Lincoln was 
first nominated for President, they passed the 
following resolution: 

" Fourth. That the maintenance inviolate of 
the rights of the States, and especially the right 
of each State to order and control its own 
domestic institutions according to its own judg- 



2 62 DEMOCRATIC PRIA'CiriES. 

ment exclusively, is essential to that balance of 
power on which the perfection and endurance of 
our political fabric depends; and we denounce 
the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of 
any State or Territory, no matter under what 
pretext, as one of the gravest of crimes." 

So thoroughly had this constitutional doctrine 
engrafted itself upon the public mind, found 
utterance in both of the great political parties and 
in their platforms, that it ought to have been 
acquiesced in by all. 

The National Democratic party still adheres to 
that idea. It is unalterably fixed in its creed; 
but it has not appeared in the Republican party 
platform from that time down to the present, 
while the Democracy have reaffirmed the same 
upon every occasion. Ever since the clays of 
Jackson's Administration has the question, in the 
Democratic party, of the right of secession 
been settled, so far as the power of a National 
party Convention could settle it. No matter what 
individual members of the party may have said, 
no matter what State and District Conventions 
may have declared on the subject, the National 
Convention only of a national party can settle 
national questions ; and, therefore, " no matter 
how frothy orators may fret and fume and tear 
passion into tatters " over a " Secession Democ- 
racy," the record proves that it never was the 
doctrine of the National Democratic party. 



DEMOCRATIC PRINCiriES. ^5^ 

The Republican party has frequently announced 
with a great flourish of trumpets that our Gov- 
ernment was not a league, but a nation ; but no 
true Jackson Democrat ever disputed that propo- 
sition as he understood its terms. Jackson, in 
his immortal proclamation, said : 

"The Constitution of the United States, then, 
forms a Government, not a league ; whether it be 
formed by compact between the States or other- 
wise, or in any other manner, its character is the 
same. It is a Government in which the people are 
represented, which operates directly on the people 
individually, not upon the State ; they retain all the 
power they did not grant. But each State hav- 
ing expressly parted with so many powers as to 
constitute, jointly with the other States, a single 
nation cannot from that period possess any right 
to .ec'.de, because such secession does not break a 
league, but destroys the unity of the nation ; and 
any injury to that unity is not only a breach which 
would result from the contravention of a com- 
pact, but it is an offense against the whole Union. 
To say that any State may at pleasure secede 
from the Union is to say that the United States 
is not a nation ; because it would be a solecism 
to contend that any part of a nation might dis- 
solve its connection with the other part, to their 
injury and ruin, without committing any offense. 
Secession, like any other revolutionary act, may 
be morally jusufied by the extremity of oppres- 



-^4 DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES. 

sion ; but to call it a constitutional right is con- 
founding the meaning of terms, and can only be 
done through gross error or to deceive those who 
are willing to assert a right, but would pause be- 
fore they made a revolution or incur the penalties 
consequent on a failure." Herein is set forth in 
the plainest terms the principles adhered to by 
the great Democratic party of the country ; and 
to charge the party with the errors, mistakes, 
and crimes of those who disregarded the teach- 
ings of their party is so grossly unjust that it 
needs no further refutation. It is because the 
Democracy have through all the past, through 
years of sectional madness and party strife, ad- 
hered in conscious integrity to those views that 
they have been denounced by enraged sectional- 
ists North and South, until reason has been again 
enthroned, and the nation can see where they 
have stood all these years. 

They constitute the only party which has a 
record upon this question, dating from its first 
inception to the present moment. Democrats op- 
posed the New England secessionists who held 
the Hartford Convention in the interest of North- 
ern nullification and secession. They opposed 
the South Carolina nullifiers at a later date, and 
have, as a great national organization, opposed 
the doctrine at all times, under all circumstances, 
and against all persons, no matter whether they 
claimed to be Democrats or not. But it may be 



DEMOCRATIC PRIXCITLES. oA- 

said that when the Rebelhon was first organized 
a Democratic Administration did not do its duty 
to suppress it. President Buchanan, elected by 
Southern votes as well as Northern, denied the 
right of secession. He was a representative 
Democrat, and he said in his message of De- 
cember, i860: "This Government is a great and 
powerful Government invested with all the at- 
tributes of sovereignty over the subjects to which 
its authority extends. Its framers never intended 
to plant in its bosom the seeds of its own destruc- 
tion, nor were they guilty of the absurdity of pro- 
viding for its own dissolution. It was not in- 
tended by its framers to be the baseless fabric of 
a vision which at the touch of the enchanter 
would vanish in thin air, but a substantial and 
mighty fabric capable of resisting the slow decay 
of time and defying the storms of ages. * * * 
In short, let us look the danger fully In the face ; 
secession is neither more nor less than revolution." 
Thus it will be seen that at no time, even the 
most critical, have true National Democrats, 
either in National Conventions or by their Chief 
Executives, ever countenanced this heresy of 
secession. There Is, therefore, no reason on this 
account why a man should not be a Democrat, 
because as such he is compelled to subscribe to 
the soundest plank ever put forth by either party 
In its platforms on the subject of the relation of 
the Federal to the State Governments. We are 



Z66 



DEMOCRATIC PRIXCITLES. 



Democrats because we believe in the doctrine 
held by the party on this most important question. 
Fanaticism never stops to reason. Driven 
by honest impulses, it rushes to its object 
without regard to obstacles. So it was with 
the secession movement, and so it was with 
the political Abolitionists of the North. Driven 
on, they ceased not their agitation until the 
clash of arms came. Slavery went down, and 
now it becomes the duty of every patriot to 
repair the injury done by war, and place our 
institutions on even a more solid foundation 
than ever before. The disturbing cause is 
now removed, and it is time for sober reflec- 
tion and intelligent action, so that we may 
preserve intact the Government our fathers 
transmitted to us, unimpaired, unchanged, and 
vigorous as it came from the hands of its 
founders. To do this, we conscientiously believe, 
the great Democratic party of the Union now 
offers the best means by which this can be 
done. It reaches out into every section of this 
great country; it stands united once more upon 
these grand principles of fraternal union, 
upon the basis of the Constitution, the just 
rights of the Federal Government undisputedly 
granted to it, while the reserved rights of the 
States are equally preserved to them. It is 
the only national party that can conciliate the 
angry sections and make this country what 



DEMOCRATIC PRIXCITLES. ^67 

the sao-es and heroes of the Revolution de- 
signed it should be, a sisterhood of States, a 
land of freedom, a home for the oppressed 
of all lands. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE RIGHT OF COERCION. 

IT has been said by some who have but poorly 
studied the formation of our Government 
that because Democrats opposed coercion 
before the Rebellion commenced, that therefore it 
was " a disloyal party," and the world disloyal is 
pronounced as if it were a horrible thing to hold 
the opinion so ably set forth by the Fathers of the 
Republic and by all sound constitutional lawyers 
and statesmen since then. Andrew Johnson, Sen- 
ator from Tennessee, then applauded for his opin- 
ions, and the candidate of the Republican party 
for Vice-President in 1864, elected by them, and 
afterward President of the United States, held 
these views. He said in the Senate of the United 
States, on December i8th, 1S60: "The Federal 
Government has no power to coerce a State, be- 
cause by the eleventh amendment of the Consti- 
tution of the United States it is expressly pro- 
vided that you cannot even put one of those States 
before the courts of the country as a party. As 



368 DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES. 

a State, the Federal Government has no power to 
coerce it ; but it is a member of the compact, to 
which it agreed with the other States, and this 
Government has the right to pass laws, and to 
enforce tJiose laws on individuals, and it has the 
right and the power not to coerce a State, but to 
enforce and execute the law upon individuals 
within the limits of a State." This was the view 
held by Hon. John A. Logan, and by many who 
even now are members of the Republican party, 
and why should it be strange that Democrats an- 
nounced those doctrines? They did not deny the 
duty and power of the Federal Government to 
enforce its laws at the point of the bayonet if 
resisted. President Buchanan, in his message to 
Congress on January 8th, A. D. i86r, says: "The 
dangerous and hostile attitude of the States to- 
ward each other has already far transcended and 
cast in the shade the ordinary executive duties 
already provided for by law, and has assumed 
such vast and alarming proportions as to place 
the subject entirely beyond executive control. The 
fact cannot be disguised that we are in the midst 
of a great revolution. In all its various bearings, 
therefore, I commend the question to Congress 
as the only human tribunal under Providence 
possessing the power to meet the existing emer- 
gency. To them exclusively belongs the power 
to declare war or to authorize the employment of 
the military force in all cases contemplated by 
the Constitution." 



DEMOCRA TIC PRINCIPLES. 



:/9 



Concrress miCTht then have taken action. The 
RepubHcan party had the power in both branches 
of Congress by reason of the secession of South- 
ern Senators, who left the RepubHcans in control 
of the Senate, and they had held the House of 
Representatives before that event occurred. No 
person ever doubted the right and duty of Con- 
gress to pass laws to enable the President to de- 
fend the Union against armed rebellion. At this 
time the question of coercion had already passed 
away. The Southern States had seceded and 
taken forcible possession of public property, and 
had themselves become the assailants. To this Con- 
gress the President appealed to decide the ques- 
tion ; but though the Republicans were in power in 
both branches. Congress shrunk from its duty. It 
might have been commendable had it desired to 
prevent the effusion of fraternal blood and restore 
the Union — perhaps it might have been their ob- 
ject— still, the duty of the hour confronted It and 
they shrunk from it. Had it promptly passed the 
bill to enable the P^resident to call forth the militia 
or to accept the services of volunteers, as Lincoln 
did when Congress was not In session, It might 
complain ; but It failed to do so, and is estopped 
from charging others with a want of vigor In this 
respect. Why, then, charge Democrats with de- 
reliction of duty when Its own chosen party legis- 
lative power was then assembled and failed to do 
that with which they would now blame the Dem- 



o/ 



DEMOCRATIC PKIXCIPLES. 



ocracy? It was his duty to enforce the laws, theirs 
to pass them ! Then how absurd to blame others 
for that which they were guilty of themselves ! 
This, then, is a brief allusion to the subject of co- 
ercion and the exercise of military power to sup- 
press the Rebellion, and there is nothing- in it that 
any Democrat need blush to acknowledge. These 
charges are only made to divert the mind of the 
voter from the real questions at issue between 
the parties and can furnish no reason whatever 
why a man should not be a Democrat after more 
than twenty years have passed .away, and almost 
a new generation has come upon the stage of 
action. 

Rather should these sound views of the Consti- 
tution and convictions of patriotic duty in those 
trying days of our national peril induce men once 
more to rally under the flag of Democracy, and 
place in power those who have been thus true to 
the great principles of free institutions upon which 
our Government is founded. True Democrats 
believe this to be their duty. 



DEMOCRA TIC PRINCIPLES. ^ ^ , 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE FUTURE OF DEMOCRACY. 

RECONCILIATION must take place. That 
these principles will finally triumph in the 
administration of our public affairs we 
can have no doubt. The progress our country 
has made under their benign influence, notwith- 
standing their interruption by the events occur- 
ring- durincr the greatest civil war known in his- 
tory, forshadows this. 

No other policy will preserve the Union and 
the liberties of the people at the same time, and 
we believe both will be our heritaije. The limits 
to which this principle of co-equal sovereign 
States, bound together in one National Govern- 
ment, under a Constitution of granted powers, 
can be extended, is scarcely conceivable. Each 
attending to its local concerns and domestic affairs, 
free from interference by the central or supreme 
Government, brings the power to govern the 
people home to their own firesides. 

If dissatisfaction arises it can be remedied by 
themselves without disturbing the peace of the 
whole. It is emphatically the principle of local 
self-government in the States. They are alone 
responsible for their bad laws. They reap the 
blessings of good ones, while the great mass of 



5*72 DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES. 

the people of the United States, now numbering 
over fifty milHons, can go on with their enterprises 
developing the country and building up the great 
West — founding States, each possessing the same 
right to pass such laws as to them may seem best. 
As the country becomes enlarged, and population 
increases, the application of these principles be- 
comes the more necessary. Then why not adopt 
them as the rule of our political action. Why 
demand a stronger government, as the Repub- 
licans do, when this is absolutely the stronger of 
the two. 

Centralization must mean despotism, A gov- 
ernment, to reach out to the verge of a mighty 
empire, must of necessity be centralized, power- 
ful, and not depend upon the masses, but 
the military, for enforcing its requirements, or 
else its duties must be few and simple, and only 
concern national affairs, easily enforced, and felt 
as little as possible by the citizens of the country. 
This the Democracy want. Any other form will 
be a failure. Our present form of government 
is, therefore, the best ever devised by man, espe- 
cially is it so, for the circumstances under which 
we find this country placed. A climate ranging 
from the rigorous winters of the extreme North, 
to almost the tropics of the South, has a variety 
of productions of the soil, and diversified interests 
to consider. No legislation could, under these 
manifold conditions, be generally acceptable. We 



DEMOCRA TIC PRINCIPLES. 



1 " f 



must have legislation by smaller districts. The 
whole people could not be sufficiently represented 
in one great national assembly. Therefore, of ne- 
cessity, the great mass of our laws, in order to be 
satisfactory, must be remitted to the people in the 
States. 

When Cong-ress has regulated commerce with 
other nations, established a uniform rule of natu- 
ralization and bankruptcy, coined money and 
regulated the value thereof, declared war, in case 
of necessity, established posts- offices and post- 
roads, and exercised a few other powers, it has 
not only enough to do to occupy its time, but has 
exhausted all its powers granted under the Con- 
stitution. If these powers be wisely exercised, in 
such a manner as to bear with equal weight upon 
all, in no spirit of sectional superiority, there is no 
limit to the power of expansion under our system. 
Whatever makes men love their government 
makes it strong ; especially is this true in a free 
government like ours. 

If this system be adhered to, and the North and 
the South and the East and the West be made 
to love, respect and obey it, because of the bless- 
ings it brings to them, what may not the next 
hundred years in America witness ? With a soil 
naturally productive in all sections of the country, 
mineral wealth stored away beneath it in abund- 
ance, lakes, rivers, and railroads affording abund- 
ant facilities to interchange products and manu- 



, y. DEMOCRA TIC PRINCIPLES. 

factures with each other ; the wants of one section 
SLippHed by another creating activity in trade, 
incentives to enterprise, stimulants to progress, 
where are to be found brighter prospects to a 
nation, if we are true to the principles on which 
our Government is founded, than here in this 
heaven favored land. But in order to continue 
our national prosperity and enjoy the full fruition 
of our hopes we must bury our sectional preju- 
dices, and enforce the benign principles so patriot- 
ically announced by Washington when he took 
public leave of his countrymen. This reconcilia- 
tion cannot be brought about by force. It is alike 
impossible that the bitter passions of the war 
period can long be continued, or that force and 
oppression or denunciation should bring about 
reconciliation. A beneficent providence has so 
constituted our natures that a violent des^ree of 
passion exercised in one direction is sooner or 
later followed by a re-action in the opposite direc- 
tion. If this were not so, and as Everett said 
upon the brow of Cemetery Hill, at Gettysburg, 
where but a few months before had been turned 
back the rebel armies, and their success became 
impossible, "were hatred always returned by equal 
and still stronger feelings of hatred; if injuries 
inflicted always lead to still greater injuries by 
way of retaliation, and thus forever a compound 
of accumulated hatred, revenge, and retaliation 
were the result, then for thousands of years would 



DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES. ^yr 

this world have been inhabited with demons only, 
and this earth have been a perfect hell. But this 
is not so ; all history tells us it is not true." 

The North and the South will and must be re- 
conciled. The Democracy must do it. All must 
feel that they have a common interest, and a her- 
itage under a common Government ; and the 
strength of the government will be beyond calcu- 
lation ; but upon the other hand you station the 
military force of the Union in their towns and 
cities, place national supervisors of elections at 
their polls, send down your federal deputy marsh- 
als to arrest and imprison their people, distrusting 
their ability and patriotism to guard their elections 
against fraud and violence, and the generation is 
yet unborn that will see a perfect Union of those 
States. The great problem how to break down 
sectionalism North and South and so order affairs 
that parties shall not be divided by geographical 
lines, is still unsettled. What party is so well 
qualified to do this as the national Democratic 
party ; who better calculated to do it than that or- 
ganization under the guidance of its chosen leader, 
the hero of Gettysburg ? 

When Everett delivered his last great speech 
at Gettysburg in A. D. 1863, he did not know that 
he was predicting a parallel to the history recitec^ 
in portraying the close of other rebelliqns. He 
brought to mind the fact that the War of the Roses 
in England had lasted thirty years, from 1455 to 



-,-5 DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES. 

1485. It was one of the fiercest civil wars known 
in history ; eighty princes of the royal blood had 
lost their lives ; and the families of the nobility 
almost annihilated. The strong feelings of affec- 
tion which kindred families then bore for one an- 
other, and the vindictive spirit which that age of 
the world made it a point of honor to maintain, 
rendered the great families of England implacable 
enemies. But at last the titles of the two con- 
tending families were centered in one person. 
Henry VII went up from Bosworth field to mount 
the throne. He was received everywhere with 
joyous exclamations and regarded as one sent by 
Heaven to put an end to that terrible strife and 
give peace and prosperity to a distracted country. 
Take the instance of another rebellion in Eng- 
land, lasting from 1620 to 1640, twenty years, 
ending suddenly with the return of Charles II. 
These again were twenty years of discord, of con- 
flict, civil war, confiscation, plunder, havoc and 
destruction. A proud, hereditary peerage trampled 
in the dust; a national church overturned; its 
clergy beggared ; its most eminent Prelate put to 
death ; a military despotism established upon the 
ruins of a monarchy that had lasted seven hundred 
years, and its legitimate sovereign brought to the 
block. All this and more done to embitter and 
estrange a people, and madden and enrage con- 
tending factions, and yet these people were recon- 
ciled! Not by a gende transition but suddenly 



DEMOCRATIC PR IXC/ PL ES. ^.ll 

when the restoration had appeared most hopeless. 
The son of the beheaded monarch was brought 
back to his father's house and to his bloodstained 
throne amid such universal and inexpressible joy 
as led the merry monarch to exclaim, he doubted 
it was his own fault he had been so long absent, 
for there seemed to be no one who did not pro- 
test that he long since wished for his return. 

God has ofttimes in a wonderful manner ended 
rebellions. It was hoped at one time that ours — 
by Sherman's agreement — would have ended as 
suddenly and as joyously ; but those in authority 
did not so will it. 

Take one more later instance, that of the 
French Revolution. It was a reisfn of terror un- 
derstood by all. A blacker page of crime cannot 
be found in all history. Another church broken 
up, its clergy murdered ; men slaughtered by 
boat-loads, and beheaded by machinery ! A mon- 
archy destroyed ; a royal family extinguished, and 
their adherents exiled or beheaded. If the most 
deadly feud had the power permanently to alien- 
ate one portion of a people from another, surely 
here we have an example ; but far otherwise was 
the fact. Napoleon brought order out of chaos ; 
the Jacobins of France welcomed home the re- 
turning emigrants, and royalists whose estates 
they had confiscated and whose kindred they had 
brought to the guillotine. 

After another turn of the wheel of fortune, 



-^yg DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES. 

Louis XVIII was restored to his throne, and he 
took the regicide Fouche to his cabinet and to 
his confidence, though he had voted for the decree 
ordeiing his brother's death. So, too, should the 
dissensions in this country cease. It would have 
already been so had not base, designing men for 
their own selfish purposes, prevented it. But they 
cannot do it much longer. This Union must be 
restored. The great public heart yearns for it. 
The South in convention assembled with the 
North as a pledge of peace and loyalty and good- 
will to the Northern soldiers, as they did to the 
civilians, with Horace Greeley, eight years ago, 
stands forth and says: Take the hero of your 
greatest battles; take him who turned back our 
hosts at Gettysburg; who, after the repeated as- 
saults of Longstreet with the flower of the South- 
ern army, scattered them as a chaff before the 
wind, and made it impossible to achieve our in- 
dependence; take him whom our bullets have 
wounded; take him who, from the very nature of 
the case, suffered most in his own person by our 
acts ; take him who has sympathy for his com- 
rades in arms ; but take him also, because, when 
the war was over, he gave us back our own local 
government; take him who was a patriot in war 
as well as a civilian, though a soldier, in peace, 
and we will obey the laws ; we will be loyal to our 
common Government. Take him and let us have 
peace with you. Should we reject this propo- 



DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES. --^ 

sition ? Should not the whole country welcome 
back those once in rebellion into the folds of a 
common nationality, and forever silence the dis- 
trust of sections ? 

Let us cast away this revengeful disposition ; 
let the better principles of our nature do their 
work, and soon we shall see a nation of freemen 
rejoicing over the restoration of their Unicn, and 
the reconciliation of their difficulties, as none have 
ever rejoiced before. It is the knowledge of these 
things, their importance to the country, the neces- 
sity that it should be speedily accomplished, that 
impels Democrats to the task. They are Demo- 
crats because they earitestly desire to see this 
great result accomplished. 



LIVES 



All the Presidents 



UNITED STATES. 




liiiiilL 



OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS 

A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE NATION'S HISTORY 



P 



GEORGE WASHINGTON, 

"^IRST President of the United States, was 
born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, 
on the 2 2d of February, 1732. He was 
the son of Augustine Washington, a wealthy 
planter, and his second wife, Mary Ball. John 
Washinorton, the orreat-g^randfather of the illus- 
trious subject of this sketch, emigrated from Eng- 
land and settled in Virginia about 1657. George 
Washino-ton's father died when he was in his 
eleventh year, leaving him in the care of his 
mother, a woman of marked strenofth of charac- 
ter. She was worthy of her trust. From her he 
acquired that self-restraint, love of order, and 
strict regard for justice and fair dealing, which, 
with his inherent probity and truthfulness, formed 
the basis of a character rarely equaled for its 
simple, yet commanding nobleness. 

Apart from his mother's training, the youthful 
Washington received only the ordinary country- 

385 



^c^ dUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

school education of the time, never having attended 
college, or taken instruction in the ancient lan- 
guages. He had no inclination for any but the 
most practical studies, but in these he was remark- 
ably precocious. When barely sixteen Lord Fair- 
fax, who had become greatly interested in the 
promising lad, engaged him to survey his vast 
estates lying in the wilderness west of the Blue 
Ridge. So satisfactory was his performance of 
this perilous and difficult task, that, on its comple- 
tion, he was appointed Public Surveyor. This 
office he held for three years, acquiring consider- 
able pecuniary benefits, as well as a knowledge 
of the country, which was of value to him in his 
subsequent military career. 

When only nineteen, Washington was appointed 
Military Inspector of one of the districts into which 
Virginia was then divided. In November, 1753, 
he was sent by Governor Dinwiddle on a mission 
to the French posts, near the Ohio River, to ascer- 
tain the designs of France in that quarter. It was 
a mission of hardship and peril, performed with 
rare prudence, sagacity, and resolution. Its bril- 
liant success laid the foundation of his fortunes. 
"From that time," says Irving, "Washington was 
the rising hope of Virginia." 

Of Washington's services in the resulting war, 
we cannot speak in detail. An unfortunate mili- 
tary expedition to the frontier was followed by a 
campaign under Braddock, whom he accompanied 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. ^3- 

as aid-de-camp, with the rank of colonel, in his 
march against Fort Duquesne. That imprudent 
General, scorning the advice of his youthful aid, 
met disastrous defeat and death. In the batde, 
Washington's coat was pierced by four bullets. 
His bravery and presence of mind alone saved 
the army from total destruction. 

Washington, on his return, was appointed com- 
mander-in-chief of all the troops of the colony, 
then numberinof about two thousand men. This 
was in 1755, when he was but little more than 
twenty-three years of age. Having led the Vir- 
ginia troops in Forbes' expedition in 1758, by 
which Fort Duquesne was captured, he resigned 
his commission, and, in January, 1759, married 
Mrs. Martha Custis {iiee Dandridge), and settled 
down at Mount Vernon, on the Potomac, which 
estate he had inherited from his elder brother 
Lawrence, and to which he added until it reached 
some ei2:ht thousand acres. 

The fifteen years following his marriage were, 
lo Washington, years of such happiness as is 
rarely accorded to mortals. It was the halcyon 
period of his life. His home was the centre of a 
generous hospitality, where the duties of a busy 
planter and of a Judge of the County Court were 
varied by rural enjoyments and social intercourse. 
He managed his estates with prudence and econ- 
omy. He slurred over nothing, and exhibited, 
even then, that rigid adherence to system and 



-53 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

accuracy of detail which subsequently marked his 
performance of his public duties. 

In the difficulties which presently arose between 
Great Britain and her American Colonies, Wash- 
ington sympathized deeply with the latter, and 
took an earnest, though not specially prominent 
part in those movements which finally led to tiie 
War of Independence. In the first general Con- 
gress of the Colonies, which met in Philadelphia, 
on the 5th of September, 1774, we find the name 
of W^ashington among the Virginia Delegates. 
As to the part he took in that Congress, we can 
only judge from a remark made by Patrick Henry, 
also a Delegate: "Colonel Washington," said the 
great orator, "was undoubtedly the greatest man 
on that floor, if you speak of solid information and 
sound judgment," 

In the councils of his native province, we also 
get glimpses of his calm and dignified presence. 
And he is ever on the side of the Colonies — mod- 
erate, yet resolute, hopeful of an amicable adjust- 
ment of difficulties, yet advocating measures look- 
ing to a final appeal to arms. 

At length the storm broke. The Battle of 
Lexington called the whole country to arms. 
While in the East the rude militia of New Eng- 
land beleaguered Boston with undisciplined but 
stern determination, Congress, in May, 1775, met 
a second time in Philadelphia. A Federal Union 
was formed and an army called for. As chair- 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. ogQ 

man of the various Committees on Military Affairs, 
Washington drew up most of the rules and regu- 
lations of the army, and devised measures for 
defense. The question now arose — By whom 
was the army to be led ? Hancock, of Massa- 
chusetts, was ambitious of the place. Sectional 
jealousies showed themselves. Happily, how- 
ever, Johnson, of Maryland, rising in his seat, 
nominated Washington. The election was by 
ballot, and unanimous. Modestly expressing sin- 
cere doubts as to his capability, Washington 
accepted the position with thanks, but refused to 
receive any salary. " I will keep an exact account 
of my expenses," he said. "These I doubt not 
Congress will discharge. That is all I desire." 

On the 15th of June he received his commis- 
sion. Writing a tender letter to his wife, he 
rapidly prepared to start on the following day 
to the army before Boston. He was now in the 
full vigor of manhood, forty-three years of age, 
tall, stately, of powerful frame and commanding 
presence. " As he sat his horse with manly 
grace," says Irving, " his military bearing de- 
lighted every eye, and wherever he went the air 
rung with acclamations." 

On his way to the army, Washington met the 
tidings of the Batde of Bunker Hill. When told 
how bravely the militia had acted, a load seemed 
lifted from his heart. "The liberties of the coun- 
try are safe !" he exclaimed. On the 2d of July 



^,(^0 OUJi FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

he took command of the troops, at Cambridge, 
Mass., the entire force then numbering about 
15,000 men. It was not until March, 1776, that 
the siege of Boston ended in tlie withdrawal of 
the British forces. Washington's admirable con- 
duct of this siege drew forth the enthusiastic ap- 
plause of the nation. Congress had a gold medal 
struck, bearing the effigy of Washington as the 
Deliverer of Boston. 

Hasteninof to defend New York from threat- 
ened attack, Washington there received, on the 
9th of July, 1776. a copy of the "Declaration of 
Independence," adopted by Congress five days 
previously. On the 27th of the following month 
occurred the disastrous battle of Long Island, the 
misfortunes of which were retrieved, however, 
by Washington's admirable retreat, one of the 
most brilliant achievements of the war. Ao-ain 1 

I 

defeated at White Plains, he was compelled to ! 
retire across New Jersey. On the 7th of De- 
cember he passed to the west side of the Dela- 
ware, at the head of a dispirited army of less than 
four thousand effective men. many of them with- 
out shoes, and leaving tracks of blood in the 
snow. This was the darkest period of the war. 
But suddenly, as if inspired, Washington, in the 
midst of a driving storm, on Christmas night re- 
crossing the Delaware, now filled with floating te 
ice, gained in rapid succession the brilliant vic-joi 
tories of Trenton and Princeton, thus changinguv 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. ^ot 

the entire aspect of affairs. Never were victories 
better timed. The waning hopes of the people 
in their cause and their commander were at once 
restored as if by magic. 

It is not possible, in this necessarily brief 
sketch, to give the details of the agonizing strug- 
gle in which Washington and his little army were 
now involved. Superior numbers and equip- 
ments often inflicted upon him disasters which 
would have crushed a less resolute spirit. 
Cheered, however, by occasional glimpses of vic- 
tory, and wisely taking advantage of what his 
troops learned in hardship and defeat, he was at 
length enabled, by one sagacious and deeply 
planned movement, to bring the war virtually to 
a close in the capture of the British army of 
7,000 men, under Cornwallis, at Yorktown, on 
the 19th of October, 1781. 

The tidings of the surrender of Cornwallis 
filled the country with joy. The lull in the ac- 
tivity of both Congress and the people was not 
viewed with favor by Washington. It was a 
period of peril. Idleness in the army fostered 
discontents there, which at one time threatened 
the gravest mischief. It was only by the utmost 
exertion that Washington induced the malcon- 
tents to turn a deaf ear to those who were at- 
tempting, as he alleged, " to open the flood-gates 
of civil discord, and deluge our rising empire 
with blood." 



^Q2 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

On September 3d, 1 783, a treaty of peace was 
signed at Paris, by which the complete indepen- 
dence of the United States was secured. On the 
23d of December following, Washington for- 
mally resigned his command. The very next 
morning he hastened to his beloved Mount Ver- 
non, arriving there that evening, in time to enjoy 
the festivities which there greeted him. 

Washington was not long permitted to enjoy 
his retirement. Indeed, his solicitude for the per- 
petuity of the political fabric he had helped to 
raise he could not have shaken off if he would. 
Unconsciously, it might have been, by his letters 
to his old friends still in public life, he continued 
to exercise a powerful influence on national affairs. 
He was one of the first to propose a remodeling 
of the Articles of Confederation, which were now 
acknowledged to be insufficient for their purpose. 
At length, a convention of delegates from the 
several States, to form a new Constitution, met at 
Philadelphia, in May, 1787. Washington pre- 
sided over Its session, which was long and stormy. 
After four months of deliberation was formed 
that Constitution under which, with some subse- 
quent amendments, we now live. 

When the new Constitution was finally ratified, 
Washington was called to the Presidency by the 
unanimous voice of the people. In April, i 789, 
he set out from Mount Vernon for New York, 
then the seat of Government, to be inaugurated. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. ^g^ 

" His progress," says Irving, " was a continuous 
ovation. The ringing of bells and the roaring of 
cannon proclaimed his course. Old and young, 
women and children, thronged the highways to 
bless and welcome him." His inaueuration took 
place April 30th, 1 789, before an immense multi- 
tude. 

The eight years of Washington's Administra- 
tion were years of trouble and difficulty. The 
two parties which had sprung up — the Federalist 
and the Republican — were greatly embittered 
against each other, each charging the other with 
the most unpatriotic designs. No other man than 
Washington could have carried the country safely 
through so perilous a period. His prudent, firm, 
yet conciliatory spirit, aided by the love and ven- 
eration with which the people regarded him, kept 
down insurrection and silenced discontent. 

That he passed through this trying period 
safely cannot but be a matter of astonishment. 
The angry partisan contests, to which we have 
referred, were of themselves sufficient to dis- 
hearten any common man. Even Washington was 
distrustful of the event, so fiercely were the par- 
tisans of both parties enlisted — the Federalists 
clamoring for a stronger government, the Repub- 
licans for additional checks on the power already 
intrusted to the Executive. Besides, the Revolu- 
tion then raging in France became a source of 
contention. The Federalists sided with England, 



-jQA OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

who was bent on crushing that Revolution, the 
RepubHcans, on the other hand, sympathized 
deeply with the French people : so that between 
them both, it was with extreme difficulty that the 
President could prevent our young Republic, bur-, 
dened with debt, her people groaning under taxes 
necessarily heavy, and with finances, commerce, 
and the industrial arts in a condition of chaos, 
from beinof dras^ored into a fresh war with either 
France or England. 

But^ before retiring from the Presidency, Wash- 
ington had the happiness of seeing many of the 
difficulties from which he had apprehended so much, 
placed in a fair way of final adjustment. A finan- 
cial system was developed which lightened the 
burden of public debt and revived the drooping 
energies of the people. The country progressed 
rapidly. Immigrants flocked to our shores, and 
the regions west of the Alleghanies began to fill 
up. New States claimed admission and were 
received into the Union — Vermont, in 1791 ; Ken- 
tucky, in 1792 ; and Tennessee, in 1796 ; so that, 
before the close of Washington's second term, the 
original thirteen States had increased to sixteen. 

Having served two Presidential terms, Wash- 
ingfton, declininor another election, returned once 
more to Mount Vernon, " that haven of repose to 
which he had so often turned a wistful eye," bear- 
ing with him the love and gratitude of his country- 
men, to whom, in his memorable " Farewell Ad- 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. ^g^ 

dress," he bequeathed a legacy of practical politi- 
cal wisdom which it will be well for them to 
remember and profit by. In this immortal docu- 
ment he insisted that the union of the States was 
"a main pillar" in the real independence of the 
people. He also entreated them to "steer clear 
of any permanent alliances with any portion of 
the foreio-n world." 

At Mount Vernon Washington found constant 
occupation in the supervision of his various 
estates. It was while taking his usual round on 
horseback to look after his farms, that, on the 12th 
of December, 1799, he encountered a cold, winter 
storm. He reached home chill and damp. The 
next day he had a sore throat, with some hoarse- 
ness. By the morning of the 14th he could 
scarcely swallow. " I find I am going," said he to 
a friend. " I believed from the first that the 
attack would be fatal." That night, between ten 
and eleven, he expired, without a struggle or a 
sigh, in the sixty-eighth year of his age, his disease 
being acute laryngitis. Three days afterward 
his remains were deposited in the family tombs at 
Mount Vernon, where they still repose. 

Washington left a reputation on which there is 
no stain. " His character," says Irving, " possessed 
fewer inequalities, and a rarer union of virtues 
than perhaps ever fell to the lot of one man„ 
* '" * It seems as if Providence had endowed 
him in a pre-eminent degree with the qualities 



^q6 ^^^ FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

requisite to fit him for the high destiny he was 
called upon to fulfill." 

In stature Washincfton was six feet two inches 
in height, well proportioned, and firmly built. 
His hair was brown, his eyes blue and set far 
apart. From boyhood he was famous for great 
strength and agility. Jefferson pronounced him 
"the best horseman of his age, and the most grace- 
ful figure that could be seen on horseback." He 
was scrupulously neat, gentlemanly, and punctual, 
and always dignified and reserved. 

In the resolution passed upon learning of his 
death, the National House of Representatives 
described him for the first time in that well-known 
phrase, " First in war, first in peace, and first in 
the hearts of his countrymen," — a tribute which 
succedine generations have continued to bestow 
upon Washington without question or doubt. By 
common consent to him is accorded as pre-emi- 
nently appropriate the title, " Pater Patriae," — the 
" Father of his Country." 

Of Washington, Lord Brougham says : " It will 
be the duty of the historian and the sage, in all 
ages, to omit no occasion of commemorating this 
illustrious man; and until time shall be no more 
will a test of the progress our race has made in 
wisdom and virtue be derived from the veneration 
paid to the immortal name of Washington." 



fOMN ADAMS. 390 



JOHN ADAMS, 

SECOND President of the United States, 
was born at Braintree, now Ouincy, Mass., 
October 19th, 1735. He was the eldest son 
of John Adams, a farmer, and Susanna Boylston. 
Graduating from Harvard in 1755, he studied law, 
defraying his expenses by teaching. In 1764, hav- 
ing meanwhile been admitted to the bar, he mar- 
ried Miss Abigail Smith, a lady whose energy of 
character contributed largely to his subsequent 
advancement. 

As early as 1761, we find young Adams look- 
ing forward, with prophetic vision, to American 
Independence. When the memorable Stamp Act 
was passed in 1765, he joined heart and soul in 
opposition to it. A series of resolutions which he 
drew up against it and presented to the citizens of 
Braintree was adopted also by more than forty 
other towns in the Province. He took the ad- 
vanced grounds that it was absolutely void — 
Parliament having no risfht to tax the Colonies. 

In 1 768 he removed to Boston. The rise of the 
young lawyer was now rapid, and he was the lead- 
ing man in many prominent cases. When, in Sep- 
tember, 1774, the first Colonial Congress met, at 
Philadelphia, Adams was one of the five Delegates 
from Massachusetts. In that Congress he took 
a prominent part He it was who, on the 6th of 



^OO ^^^^ FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

May, 1776, boldly advanced upon the padi oi 
Independence, by moving " the adoption of such 
measures as would best conduce to the happiness 
and safety of the American people." It was 
Adams, who, a month later, seconded the resolu- 
tion of Lee, of Virginia, " that these United States 
are, and of right ought to be, independent." It 
was he who uttered the famous words, " Sink or 
swim, live or die, survive or perish, with my 
country is my unalterable determination." He, 
too, it was, who, with Jefferson, Franklin, Sher- 
man, and Livingston, drew up that famous " Dec- 
laration of Independence," which, adopted by Con- 
gress on the 4th of July, 1776, decided a question, 
"greater, perhaps, than ever was or will be de- 
cided anywhere." During all these years of 
engrossing public duty he produced many able 
essays on the rights of the Colonies. These ap- 
peared in the leading journals of the day and 
exerted wide influence. The motion to prepare 
a Declaration of Independence was opposed by a 
strong party, to the champion of which Adams 
made reply and Jefferson said, "John Adams was 
the ablest advocate and champion of indepen- 
dence on the floor of the House." 

Writing to his wife on July 3d, 1776, and refer- 
ring to the Declaration of Independence, that day 
adopted, he forecast the manner of that day's 
celebration by bonfires, fireworks, etc., as " the 
ijreat anniversary festival." During all the years 



JOHN ADAMS. aq^ 

of the war he was a most zealous worker and val- 
ued counselor. After its years of gloom and 
trial, on the 21st of January, 1783, he assisted in 
the conclusion of a treaty of peace, by which 
Great Britain acknowledged the complete inde- 
pendence of the United States. On the previous 
October, he had achieved what he ever regarded 
as the Greatest success of his life — the formation 
of a treaty of peace and alliance with Holland, 
which had a most important bearing on the nego- 
tiations leading to the final adjustment with Eng- 
land. 

He was United States Minister to England from 
1785 to 1788, and Vice-President during both the 
terms of Washington. During these years, as 
presiding officer of the Senate, he gave no less 
than twenty casting votes, all of them on ques- 
tions of great importance, and all supporting the 
policy of the President. Mr. Adams was himself 
inaugurated President on the 4th of March, 1797, 
having been elected over Jefferson by a small 
majority. Thomas Pinckney was nominated for 
the Vice-Presidency with him, they representing 
the Federal party, but in the Electoral College 
Thomas Jefferson received the choice and became 
Vice-President. He retained as his Cabinet the 
officers previously chosen by Washington. 

He came into office at a critical period. The 

, conduct of the French Directory, in refusing to 

receive our ambassadors, and in trying to injure 



Iqa our FORMEk PRESWEMTS. 

our commerce by unjust decrees, excited intense 
ill-feeling, and finally led to what is known as "the 
Quasi War " with France, Congress now passed 
the so-called "Alien and Sedition Laws," by which 
extraordinary and, it is alleged, unconstitutional 
powers were conferred upon the President. 
Though the apprehended war was averted, the 
odium of these laws effectually destroyed the pop- 
ularity of Adams, who, on running for a second 
term, was defeated by Mr. Jefferson, representing 
the Republicans, who were the Democratic party 
of that day. On the 4th of March, 1801, he re- 
tired to private life on his farm near Quincy. His 
course as President had brought upon him the 
reproaches of both parties, and his days were 
ended in comparative obscurity and neglect. He 
lived to see his son, John Quincy Adams, in the 
Presidential chair. 

By a singular coincidence, the death of Mr. 
Adams and that of his old political rival, Jefferson, 
took place on the same day, and almost at the 
same hour. Stranger still, it was on July the 4th, 
1826, whilst bells were ringing and cannon roar- 
ing to celebrate the fiftieth Anniversary of the 
Declaration of Independence, their own immortal 
production, that these two men passed away. 
Mr, Adams was asked if he knew what day it was. 
"Oh! yes!" he exclaimed, "It is the Fourth of 
July, God bless it! God bless you all ! It is a 
great and glorious day!" and soon after quietly 
expired, in the ninety-first year of his age. 



"THOMAS JEFFERSOt^. k^f 

Mr. Adams possessed a vigorous and polished 
intellect, and was one of the most upright of men. 
His character was one to command respect^ rather 
than to win affection. There was a certain lack 
of warnith in his stately courtesy which seemed 
to forbid approach. Yet nobody, we are told, 
could know him intimately without admiring the 
simplicity and truth which shone in all his actions. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

THOMAS JEFFERSON, who succeeded 
Adams as President, was born at Shadwell, 
Albermarle County, Va., April 2d, 1743. 
Peter Jefferson, his father, was a man of great 
force of character and of remarkably powerful 
physique. His mother, Jane Randolph, was from 
a most respectable English family. He was the 
eldest of eio^ht children. He became a classical 
student when a mere boy, and entered college in 
an advanced class when but seventeen years of 
age. Having passed through college, he studied 
law under Judge Wythe, and in 1767 commenced 
practice. In 1769, he was elected to the Virginia 
Legislature. Three years later, he married Mrs. 
Martha Skelton, a rich, handsome, and accom- 
plished young widow, with whom he went to reside 
in his new mansion at Monticello, near to the spot 
where he was born. His practice at the bar grew 



4o6 



OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. 



rapidly and became very lucrative, and he early 
engaged in the political affairs of his own State. 
For years the breach between England and her 
Colonies had been rapidly widening. Jefferson 
earnestly advocated the right of the latter to local 
self-government, and wrote a pamphlet on the 
subject which attracted much attention on both 
sides of the Atlantic. By the spring of 1775 the 
Colonies were In revolt. We now find Jefferson 
in the Continental Congress — the youngest mem- 
ber save one. His arrival had been anxiously 
awaited. He had the reputation "of a matchless 
pen." Though silent on the floor, in committee 
" he was prompt, frank, explicit, and decisive," 
Early in June, 1776, a committee, with Jefferson 
as chairman, was appointed to draw up a " Decla- 
ration of Independence." Unanimously urged by 
his associates to write it, he did so, Franklin and 
Adams, only, making a few verbal alterations. 
Jefferson has been charged with plagiarism in the 
composition of this ever-memorable paper. Vol- 
umes have been written on the subject; but those 
who have investigated the closest, declare that 
the Mecklenburg Declaration, from which he was 
charged with plagiarism, was not then in existence. 
Jefferson distinctly denies having seen it. Prob- 
ably, in preparing it, he used many of the popular 
phrases of the time ; and hence it was that it 
seized so quickly and so irresistibly upon the 
public heart. It was the crystallized expression 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. ^OQ 

of the spirit of the age. Edward Everett pro- 
nounced this Declaration " equal to anything ever 
born on parchment or expressed in the visible 
siens of thought." Bancroft declares, " The heart 
of Jefferson in writing it, and of Congress in 
adopting it, beat for all humanity." 

Chosen a second time to Congress, Jefferson 
declined the appointment, in order that he might 
labor in re-orofanizinof Virofinia. He therefore 
laccepted a seat in the Legislature, where he 
zealously applied himself to revising the funda- 
Imental laws of the State. The abolition of primo- 
geniture and the Church establishment was the 
result of his labors, and he was justly proud of 
it. No more important advance could have been 
made. It was a step from middle-age darkness 
into the broad light of modern civilization. 

In 1778, Jefferson procured the passage of a 
law prohibiting the further importation of slaves. 
The following year he was elected Governor, 
succeeding Patrick Henry in this honorable posi- 
tion, and at the close of his official term he again 
sought the retirement of Monticello. In 1782, 
shortly after the death of his beloved wife, he was 
summoned to act as one of the Commissioners to 
negotiate peace with England. He was not 
required to sail, however ; but, taking a seat in 
Congress, during the winter of 1783, he, who had 
drawn up the Declaration of Independence, was 
the first to officially announce its final triumph. 



4IO 



OUR FORMER PR^S/D£j\rTS. 



At the next session of Congress, he secured the 
adoption of our present admirable system of coin- 
age. As chairman of a committee to draft rule^ 
for the government of our Northwest Territory- 
he endeavored, but without success, to secure the 
prohibition of slavery therefrom forever. In May, 
1784, he was sent to Europe, to assist Adams and j 
Franklin in negotiating treaties of commerce with ; 
foreign nations. Returning home in 1789, he' 
received from Washington the appointment of 
Secretary of State, which office he resigned in 1 793. 
He withdrew, says Marshall, " at a time when he 
stood particularly high in the esteem of his coun- 
trymen." His friendship for France, and his dis- 
like of England ; his warm opposition to the 
aggrandizement of the central power of the Gov- 
ernment, and his earnest advocacy of every mea- 
sure tending to enlarge popular freedom, had won 
for him a laro-e followinof, and he now stood the 
acknowledofed leader of the sfreat and orrowinof 
Anti-federal party. 

Washington declining a third term, Adams, as 
we have already seen, succeeded him, Jefferson 
becoming Vice-President. At the next election, 
Jefferson and Burr, the Republican candidates, 
stood highest on the list. By the election law of 
that period, he who had the greatest number of 
votes was to be President, while the Vice-Presi- 
dency fell to the next highest candidate. Jeffer- 
son and Burr having an equal number of votes, 



THOMAS JEFFERSON: ^ j ^ 

it remained for the House of Representatives to 
decide which should be President. After a long 
and heated canvass, Jefferson was chosen on the 
thirty-sixth ballot. He was inaugurated, on the 
4th of March, 1801, at Washington, whither the 
Capitol had been removed a few months pre- 
viously. In 1804, he was re-elected by an over- 
whelming majority. At the close of his second 
term, he retired once more to the quiet of Monti- 
cello. 

The most important public measure of Jeffer- 
son's Administration, to the success of which he 
directed his strongest endeavors, was the pur- 
chase from France, for the insignificant sum of 
^15,000,000, of the immense Territory of Louisi- 
ana. It was during his Administration, too, that 
the conspiracy of Burr was discovered, and 
thwarted by the prompt and decisive action of the 
President. Burr's scheme was a mad one — to 
break up the Union, and erect a new empire, with 
Mexico as its seat. " Jefferson is regarded as hav- 
ing: initiated the custom of removingf incumbents 
from office on political grounds alone. 

From the retirement into which he withdrew at 
the end of his second term, Jefferson never 
emerged. His time was actively employed in 
the management of his property and in his exten- 
sive correspondence. In establishing a Univer- 
sity at Charlottesville, Jefferson took a deep in- 
terest, devoting to it much of his time and means. 



y,TA OUR FORMER rRESWEIVTS. \. 

414 I 

He was proud of his work, and directed diat die jj 
words " Father of the University of Virginia " \ 
should be inscribed upon his tomb. He died, J 
shortly after mid-day, on the Fourth of July, 
1826, a few hours before his venerable friend andi 
compatriot, Adams. j 

Jefferson was the very embodiment of the | 
democracy he sought to make the distinctive feat- 
ure of his party. All titles were distasteful to 
him, even the prefix Mr. His garb and manners 
were such that the humblest farmer was at home 
in his society. He declared that in view of the 
existence of slavery he "trembled for his coun- 
try when he remembered that God is just." He 
was of splendid physique, being six feet two and 
a half inches in height, but well built and sinewy. 
His hair was of a reddish brown, his countenance 
ruddy, his eyes light hazel. Both he and his wife 
were wealthy, but they spent freely and died in- 
solvent, leaving but one daughter. 

His moral character was of the highest order.. 
Profanity he could not endure, either in himself 
or others. He never touched cards, or strong 
drink in any form. He was one of the most 
generous of men, lavishly hospitable, and in 
everything a thorough gentleman. Gifted with 
an intellect far above the average, he had added 
to it a surprising culture, which ranked him' 
among our most accomplished scholars. To 
his extended learning, to his ardent love of lib- 



JAMES MADISON. a-{c 

erty, and to his broad and tolerant views, Is due 
much, very much, of whatever is admirable in our 
instkutions. In them we discern everywhere 
traces of his master spirit. ^ 



JAMES MADISON. 

WHEN Mr. Jefferson retired from the 
Presidency, the country was almost on 
the verge of war with Great Britain. 
Disputes had arisen In regard to certain restric- 
tions laid by England upon our commerce. A 
hot discussion also came up about the right 
claimed and exercised by the commanders of 
English war-vessels, of searching American ships 
and of taking from them such seamen as they 
miorht choose to consider natives of Great Britain. 
Many and terrible wrongs had been perpetrated 
In the exercise of this alleofed ricrht. Hundreds 
of American citizens had been ruthlessly forced 
into the British service. 

It was when the public mind was agitated by 
such outrages, that James Madison, the fourth 
President of the United States, was Inaugurated. 
When he took his seat, on the 4th of March, 
1809, he lacked but a few days of being fifty-eight 
years of age, having been born on the 15th of 
March, 1 75 1. His father was Colonel James 
Madison, his mother Nellie Conway. He gradu- 



.j5 ^^'^ FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

ated at Princeton College, New Jersey, in 1771, 
after which he studied law. 

In his twenty-sixth year he had been a memben 
of the Convention which framed the Constitution 
of Virginia ; in 1780 had been elected to the 
Continental Congress, in which he at once took a 
commanding position ; had subsequently entered 
the Virginia Legislature, where he co-operated 
with his friend and neighbor, Jefferson, in the ab- 
rogation of entail and primogeniture, and in the 
establishment of religious freedom ; had drawn 
up the call in answer to which the Convention to 
Draught a Constitution for the United States met 
at Philadelphia in 1787, and had been one of the 
most active members of that memorable assem- 
blatre in reconcilincr the discordant elements of 
which it was composed. He had also labored 
earnestly to secure the adoption of the new Con- 
stitution by his native State ; had afterward en- 
tered Congress ; and when Jefferson became 
President, in March, 1801, had been by him ap- 
pointed Secretary of State, a post he had declined ! 
when it was vacated by Jefferson in December,! 
1793. In this important post for eight years, hei 
won the highest esteem and confidence of the \ 
nation. Having been nominated by the Repub- : 
licans, he was in 1808 elected to the Presidency,! 
receiving one hundred and twenty-two electoral i 
votes, while Charles C. Pinckney, the Federal can- f 
didate, received but forty-seven. 



JAMES MADISON. .^y 

In 1794, he married Mrs. Dorothy Todd, a 
young widow lady, whose bright intelHgence and 
fascinating manners were to gain her celebrity as 
one of the most remarkable women who ever 
presided over the domestic arrangements of the 
Presidential Mansion. 

Of a weak and delicate constitution, and with 
the habits of a student, Mr. Madison would have 
preferred peace to war. But even he lost patience 
at the insults heaped upon the young Republic by 
it ancient mother; and when, at length, on the 
1 8th of June, 1812, Congress declared war against 
Great Britain, he gave the declaration his official 
sanction, and took active steps to enforce it. 
Though disasters in the early part of the war 
greatly strengthened the Federal party, who were 
bitterly opposed to hostilities, die ensuing Presi- 
dential canvass resulted in the re-election of Mr. 
Madison by a large majority, his competitor, De 
Wit*: Clinton, receiving eighty-nine electoral votes 
to one hundred and twenty-eight for Madison. 
On the 1 2th of August, 18 14, a British army took 
Washington, the President himself narrowly esca 
ping capture. The Presidential Mansion, the Cap- 
itol, and all the public buildings were wantonly 
burned. The 14th of December following, a treaty 
of peace was signed at Ghent, in which, however, 
England did not relinquish her claim to the righc 
of search. But as she has not since attempted to 
exercise it, the question may be regarded as hav- 
ing been finally settled by the contest. 



^jg OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

On the 4th of March, 181 7, Madison's second 
term having expired, he withdrew to private Yxic 
at his paternal homeofMontpeUer, Orange Count) 
Va. During his administration, two new State; 
had been added to the Union, making the total 
number at this period nineteen. The first to 
claim admittance was Louisiana, in 181 2. It was 
formed out of the Southern portion of the vast 
Territory, purchased, during the Presidency of 
Jefferson, from France. Indiana — the second 
State — was admitted in 18 16. 

After his retirement from office, Mr. Madison 
passed nearly a score of quiet years at Montpe- 
lier. With Jefferson, who was a not very distant 
neighbor, he co-operated in placing the Charlottes- 
ville University upon a substantial foundation. In 
1829, he left his privacy to take part in the Con- 
vention which met at Richmond to revise the 
Constitution of the State. His death took place 
on the 28th of June, 1836, in the eighty-fifth year 
of his age. 



JAMES MONROE. 

MADISON'S successor in the Presidential 
chair was James Monroe, whose Admin- 
istration has been called " the Era of 
Good Feeling," from the temporary subsidence at 
that time of party strife. He was a son of Spence 
Monroe, a planter. He was born on his father's 



JAMES MONK OE. ^ ^ g 

plantation in Westmoreland County, Va., on the 
28th of April, 1758. At the age of sixteen he 
entered William and Mary College; but when, 
two years later, the Declaration of Independence 
called the Colonies to arms, the young collegian, 
dropping his books, girded on his sword, and en- 
tered the service of his country. Commissioned 
a lieutenant, he took part in the battles of Harlem 
Heiofhts and White Plains. In the attack on 
Trenton he was wounded in the shoulder, and for 
his bravery promoted to a captaincy. Subse- 
quently he was attached to the staff of Lord Ster- 
ling with the rank of major, and fought by the 
side of Lafayette, when that officer was wounded 
at the battle of Brandywine, and also participated 
in the battles of Germantown and Monmouth. 
He was afterward given a colonel's commission, 
but, being unable to recruit a regiment, began the 
study of law in the office of Jefferson, then Gover- 
nor of Virginia. 

When only about twenty-three years old, he 
was elected to the Virginia Legislature. The next 
year he was sent to Congress. On the expiration 
of his term, having meanwhile married, in New 
York, Miss Kortright, a young lady of great 
intelligence and rare personal attractions, he re- 
turned to Fredericksburg, and commenced prac- 
tice as a lawyer. He espoused the cause of the 
Anti-Federal or Republican party, being thor- 
oughly democratic in his ideas, as was his eminent 



420 ^^^ FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

j3receptor, Jefferson. In i 789, he was elected to 
the United States Senate. In 1794, he was ap~ 
pointed minister-plenipotentiary to France, but 
recalled from his mission two years later because 
of his 'outspoken sympathies with the republicans 
of that country. 

Shortly after his return, Monroe was elected 
Governor of Virginia, which post he held for three 
years (i 799-1 802). On the expiration of his 
official term, he was sent to co-operate with Ed- 
ward Livingston, then resident Minister at Paris, 
in negotiating the treaty by which the Territory of 
Louisiana was secured to the United States. In 
181 1, he was again elected Governor of Virginia, 
but presently resigned to become Madison's Sec- 
retary of State. 

During the period following the capture of 
Washington, September, 1814-March, 181 5, he 
acted as Secretary of War, and did much to restore 
the nation's power and credit. He continued 
Secretary of State until March, 181 7, when he 
became President. He was chosen by the Dem- 
ocratic party, till then known as the Republican. 
He received one hundred and eighty-three elec- 
toral votes, his opponent, Rufus King, receiving 
but thirty-four votes. The violence of party spirit 
greatly abated during his first term, and he was 
re-elected in 1821, with but one dissenting vote 
out of the two hundred and thirty-two cast by the 
electoral college. On the 4th of March, 1825, he 



yAMES MONROE. a 2 1 

retired to the quiet and seclusion of his estate at 
Oak Hill, in Loudon County, Virginia. 

During Monroe's Administration, the bound- 
aries of the United States were considerably 
enlarged by the purchase of Florida from Spain. 
Five new States were also admitted into the 
Union: Mississippi, in 181 7; Illinois, in 181 8; 
Alabama, in 1819; Maine, in 1820; and Missouri, 
in 1821. 

The discussion in Congress over the admission 
of Missouri showed the existence of a new dis- 
turbing element in our national politics. It was 
the question of the further extension of slavery ; 
not so much in regard to its moral aspects as to 
its bearing on the question of the balance of polit- 
ical power. For a brief period two parties, one 
in favor of and the other against admitting any 
more Slave States, filled Congress and the country 
with angry discussion. This was quieted for the 
time by what is known as " the Missouri Compro- 
mise," which restricted slavery to the territory 
lying south of the southern boundary of Missouri. 

The somewhat celebrated " Monroe Doctrine " 
is regarded as one of the most important results 
of Monroe's Administration. It was enunciated 
in his message to Consfress on the 2d of Decem- 
ber, 1823, and arose out of his sympathy for the 
new Republics then recently set up in South 
America. In substance it was, that the United 
States would never entangle themselves with the 



A 22 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

quarrels of Europe, nor allow Europe to interfere 
with the affairs of this continent. 

In 1830, the venerable ex-President went to 
reside with his son-in-law, Samuel L. Gouverneur, 
in New York, where he died in the seventy-fourth 
year of his age, on the 4th of July, 1831, being the 
third of our five Revolutionary Presidents to pass 
from earth on the anniversary of that memorable 
day, which had contributed so largely to the 
shaping of their destinies. 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, 

THE son of Jolm Adams, our second Presi- 
dent, and himself the sixth chief executive 
of the Union, was born at Quincy, Mass., 
on the nth of July, 1767. He enjoyed rare 
opportunities for culture from his mother, who 
was a lady of very superior talents. While yet a 
mere boy, he twice accompanied his father to 
Europe, and at the age of fourteen was appointed 
private secretary to Francis Dana, then Minister 
to Russia, Graduating from Harvard in 1788, he 
studied law under Theophilus Parsons, and com- 
menced practice in Boston in 1791. In 1794, he 
was appointed by Washington Minister to Holland. 
In July, 1797, he married Louisa, daughter of 
Joshua Johnson, then American Consul at London. 
In 1797, his father, who was then President, gave 
him the mission to Berlin, being urged to this 



JOHN Q UTNC V J DAMS. . 2 ■? 

recognition of his own son by Washington, who 
pronounced the younger Adams " the most valu- 
able public character we have abroad." 

On the accession of Jefferson to the Presidency, 
Mr. Adams was recalled from Berlin. Soon after 
his return, however, he was elected to the United 
States Senate, where he speedily won a command- 
ing position, ardently supporting Jefferson's mea- 
sures of resistance aofainst the arrocjance and 
insolence of England in her encroachments upon 
our commerce and in her impressment of our 
seamen. The Leo^Islature of Massachusetts havinof 
censured him for his course, Adams resigned his 
z seat; but, in 1809, was selected by Madison to 
> represent the United States at St. Petersburg. 
On the 24th of December, 18 14, he, in conjunction 
with Clay and Gallatin, concluded the Treaty of 
Ghent, which closed " the Second War of Inde- 
pendence." In 181 7, he was recalled to act as 
Secretary of State for President Monroe. 

At the election for Monroe's successor, In 1824, 
party spirit ran high. The contest was an excit- 
ing one. Of the two hundred and sixty electoral 
votes, Andrew Jackson received 99, John Oulncy 
Adams 84, Wm. H. Crawford 41, and Henry 
Clay ;^y. As there was no choice by the people, 
the election devolved upon the House of Repre- 
sentatives. Here Mr. Clay gave the vote of 
Kentucky to Adam-^, and otherwise promoted his 
cause, so that he received the votes of thirteen 
States, and was elected. 



,^ i OUR FORMER PRESlDEMf^. 

The Administration of the younger Adams has 
been characterized as the purest and most 
economical on record. Yet, during his entire 
term, he was the objectof the most rancorous parti- 
san assaults. He had appointed Clay as his Sec- 
retary of State, whereat the Jackson men accused 
them both of " bargaining and corruption," and in 
all ways disparaged and condemned their work. 
In his official intercourse, it was said Adams often 
displayed " a formal coldness which froze like an 
iceberg." This coldness of manner, along with 
his advocacy of a high protective tariff and the 
policy of internal improvements, and his known 
hostility to slavery, made him many bitter enemies, 
especially in the South, and at the close of his 
first term he was probably the most unpopular 
man who could have aspired to the Presidency ; 
and yet, in his contest with Jackson at that time, 
Adams received eighty-three electoral votes, Jack- 
son being chosen by one hundred and seventy- 
eigrht. 

On the 4th of March, 1829, General Jackson 
having been elected President, Mr. Adams re- 
tired to private life; but, in 1831, was elected to 
the House of Representatives of the United 
States, where he took his seat, pledged, as he said, 
to no party. He at once became the leader of 
that little band, so insignificant in numbers, but 
powerful in determination and courage, who, re- 
garding slavery as both a moral and a political 



JOHM QUINC y ADAMS. ^2 ^ 

evil, began, in Congress, to advocate its abolition. 
By his continual presentation of petitions against 
slavery, he gradually yet irresistibly led the pub- 
lic mind to familiarize itself with the idea of its 
final extinction. To the fiery onslaughts of the 
Southern members he opposed a cold and unim- 
passioned front. 

In 1842, to show his consistency in upholding 
the right of petition, he presented to Congress 
the petition of some thirty or forty over-zealous 
anti-slavery persons for the dissolution of the 
Union. This brought upon the venerable ex- 
President a perfect tempest of indignation. Reso- 
lutions to expel him were introduced ; but, after 
eleven days of stormy discussion, they were laid 
on the table. The intrepidity displayed by " the 
old man eloquent " was beginning to tell. Even 
those who most bitterly opposed his doctrines 
were learning to respect him. When, after a 
season of illness, he re-appeared in Congress, in 
February, 1847, every member instinctively rose 
in his seat to do the old man honor. On the 
2 1 St of February, 1848, Mr. Adams was struck 
down by paralysis on the fioor of the House of 
Representatives. He was taken, senseless, into 
an ante-room. Recoverinof his consciousness, he 
looked calmly around, and said : "This is the last 
of earth : I am content." These were his last 
words. In an apartment beneath the dome of the 
Capitol he expired, on February 23d, in the 
eighty-first year of his age. 



426 



OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. 



ANDREW JACKSON, 



SEVENTH President of the United States, 
was born in Mecklenburg County, North 
Carohna, on the 15th of March, 1767. His 
father, who was a poor Irishman, dying a few days 
before Andrew's birth, he and his two older 
brothers were left to the care of his mother. 
The boys had little schooling. Andrew was a 
rude, turbulent lad, at once vindictive and gener- 
ous, full of mischief, but resolute, of indomitable 
courage, and wonderfully self-reliant. When but 
thirteen, fired by the death of his oldest brother, 
who had perished from heat and exhaustion at 
the Battle of Stono, he shouldered a musket and 
took part in the War of Independence. He and 
his remaining brother were made prisoners by 
the British, but were soon released through the 
exertions of their mother. It was during this 
captivity that Andrew received a wound from a 
British officer for refusing to black the boots of 
that dignitary. Both the released boys were soon 
sent home with the small-pox, of which the elder 
died, and Andrew barely escaped death. The 
mother went next, dying of ship fever, contracted 
while attending upon the patriot prisoners at 
Charleston. Thus left an orphan, Andrew worked 
a short time in a saddler's shop. He then tried 
school-teaching, and finally studied law, being 



ANDRE W JA CKSON. j^ 2 7 

admitted to practice when but twenty years old. 
At that time he was very commanding in appear- 
ance, being six feet one inch in height, and dis- 
tinguished for courage and activity. 

In 1 791, Jackson married, at Nashville, where 
he had built up a lucrative practice, Mrs. Rachel 
Robards, the divorced wife, as both he and the 
lady herself supposed, of Mr. Lewis Robards. 
They had lived together two years, when it was 
discovered that Mrs. Robards was not fully di- 
vorced at the time of her second marriage. As, 
however, the divorce had subsequently been per- 
fected, the marriage ceremony was performed 
anew, in 1794. In after years, this unfortunate 
mistake was made the basis of many calumni- 
ous charges against Jackson by his partisan 
enemies. 

Tennessee having been made a State in 1796, 
Jackson was successively its Representative and 
Senator in Congress, and a Judge of its Supreme 
Court. Resigning his judgeship in 1804, he en- 
tered into and carried on for a number of years 
an extensive trading business. He was also 
elected at this period major-general in the militia. 
In 1806 he was severely wounded in a duel with 
Charles Dickenson, who had been making dis- 
paraging remarks against his wife, something 
which Jackson could neither forget nor forgive. 
Dickenson fell mortally wounded, and, after suf- 
fering intense agony for a short time, died. This 



^28 ^^^ FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

sad affair, in which Jackson displayed much vin- 
dictiveness, made him for awhile very unpopular. 

When, in 1812, war was declared against Eng- 
land, Jackson prompdy offered his services to the 
General Government. During the summer of 
181 3 he had another of those personal rencontres 
into which his fiery temper was continually lead- 
ing him. In an affray with Thomas H. Benton, he 
received a pistol-shot in the shoulder at the hands 
of Benton's brother, from the effects of which he 
never fully recovered. He was still suffering 
from the immediate consequences of this wound, 
when tidingrs were received at Nashville of the 
massacre at Fort Mimms by Creek Indians. Jack- 
son, regardless of his wounds, at once took the 
field. An energetic campaign, in which, winning 
victory after victory, he established his reputation 
as one of our best military chieftains, ended the 
Creek War, and broke forever the power of the 
Indian races in North America. 

In May, 1 8 1 4, Jackson was made a major-gen- 
eral in the regular army and became the acknowl- 
edged military leader in the Southwest. New 
Orleans being threatened by the British, he hast- 
ened to defend it. There, on the 8th of January, 
181 5, with less than five thousand men, mostly 
untrained militia, he repulsed the attack of a well- 
appointed army of nearly fourteen thousand vet- 
eran troops, under some of the most distinguished 
ofBcers in the English service. Generals Paken* 



ANDREW JACKSON. a 2^ 

ham and Gibbs, of the British forces, were killed, 
too-ether with seven hundred of their men, fourteen 
hundred more being wounded and five hundred 
taken prisoners. Jackson lost but eight killed and 
fourteen wounded. Ten days later the enemy- 
withdrew, leaving many of their guns behind 
them. The full glory of Jackson's triumph at 
New Orleans partisan rancor subsequently sought 
to dim. But high military authorities, even in 
England, have sustained the popular judgment 
that it was a brilliant victory, achieved by rare 
foresight, wise conduct, and undoubted warlike 
eenius. 

Jackson's success at New Orleans gave him 
immense popularity. He received a vote of 
thanks from Congress, was made Commander-in- 
chief of the southern division of the army, and 
even began to be talked of as a candidate for the 
Presidency, President Monroe offered him the 
post of Secretary of War, In the Seminole War, 
which commenced about the close of 1817, he 
took the field in person. He was successful, 
with but little fiofhtino-. His execution of Arbuth- 
not and Armbruster, two British subjects, found 
guilty by a military court of inciting the Indians 
to hostilities, caused an angry discussion between 
England and the United States which at one time 
threatened to end in open rupture. In Congress, 
also, it excited a warm debate ; but resolutions 
censuring the General were rejected by the 



^-^O '^^^ FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

House, and came to no conclusion in the 
Senate. 

When Spain ceded Florida to the Union, Jack- 
son was appointed Governor of the Territory. 
In 1823 he was elected to the United States Sen- 
ate by the Legislature of Tennessee, which, at the 
same time, nominated him for the Presidency. 
This nomination, though ridiculed on account of 
Jackson's alleged unfitness for the office, never- 
theless resulted, at the ensuing election, in his 
receiving more votes than any other single can- 
didate ; but the choice devolving on the House 
of Representatives, Adams, as we have seen, was 
elected. For Henry Clay's part in this success of 
Adams, Jackson became his bitter enemy, stigma- 
tizing him as the "Judas of the West." In the 
next campaign, however, Jackson achieved a de- 
cided triumph, having a majority of eighty-three 
out of two hundred and sixty-one electoral votes. 

In retaliation for the bitter personal attacks he 
had received during the campaign, Jackson com- 
menced a wholesale political proscription of his 
partisan opponents. Adopting the war-cry of his 
Secretary of State, Marcy, of New York, that 
"to the victors belong the spoils," he initiated that 
system, ever since so prevalent, of turning out of 
office every man not on the side of the winning 
party. His veto of the bill re-chartering the 
United States Bank, which for a time caused quite 
a panic in commercial circles, and his determined 



ANDRE IV JA CKSON. . -, j 

Stand against the " nulHfiers," under the lead of 
Calhoun, who, with threats of armed resistance, 
demanded a reduction of the tariff, excited a warm 
opposition to the President. But, in spite of 
every effort, the election of 1828 brought him 
again into the Presidential chair with an over- 
whelming majority, he receiving two hundred 
and nineteen electoral votes out of two hundred 
and eighty-eight, which was then the total number. 

On the loth of December, 1832, Jackson was 
compelled by the conduct of South Carolina to 
issue a proclamation threatening to use the army 
in case of resistance to the execution of the tariff 
laws; but, fortunately, Mr, Clay succeeded in 
bringing about a compromise, by which, the tariff 
being modified, the South Carolinians were ena- 
bled to recede from their position with becoming 
dignity. 

Jackson's removal of the deposits, in 1833, 
caused an intense excitement throughout the 
country. In Congress, his course was censured 
by the Senate, but approved by the House. A 
panic existed for some time in business circles ; 
but before the close of his second term the great 
mass of the people were content with the Presi- 
dent's course. 

Jackson's foreign diplomacy had been very 
successful. Useful commercial treaties were 
made with several countries and renewed with 
others. Indemnities for spoliations on American 



432 ^^^ FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

commerce were obtained from various foreiofn 
countries. The national debt was extinguished, 
the Cherokees were removed from Georgia and 
the Creeks from Florida, while the original num- 
ber of the States was doubled by the admission 
into the Union of Arkansas, in 1836, and of 
Michigan, in 1837. On the other hand, the slavery- 
dispute was renewed with much bitterness, and 
the Seminole War re-commenced. 

On the 4th of March, 1837, Jackson retired 
from public life. He returned to " the Hermit- 
age," his country seat, where he remained until 
his death, on the 8th of June, 1845. The imme- 
diate cause of his death was dropsy; but through 
the greater part of his life he had been a sufferer 
from disease in one form or another. 

General Jackson has been described as a man 
of unbounded hospitality. He loved fine horses 
and had a passion for racing them, " His temper," 
writes Colonel Benton, "was placable as well as 
irascible, and his reconciliations were cordial and 
sincere." He abhorred debt, public as well as 
private. His love of country was a master pas- 
sion. " He was a thoroughly honest man, as 
straightforward in action as his thoughts were 
unsophisticated." Of book-knowledge he pos- 
sessed little — scarcely anything ; but his vigorous 
native Intelligence and intuitive judgment carried 
him safely through where the most profound 
learninor without them would have failed. 



MARTIN VAN BUR EN. a^X 



MARTIN VAN BUREN, 

THE eighth chief executive of the Union, 
was the son of a thrifty farmer in the old 
town of Kinderhook, in Columbia County, 
New York, where he was born on the 5th of 
December, 1782. Early evidencing unusual 
mental vigor, a good academic education was 
given to him. Finishing this at the age of four- 
teen, he then began the study of the law. After 
seven years of study he was admitted to the bar, 
and commenced to practice in his native village. 
His growing reputation and practice warranting 
him in seeking a wider field, in 1809 he removed 
to Hudson. In 1812, he was elected to the Sen- 
ate of New York ; and, in 181 5, having been 
appointed Attorney-General of the State, he re- 
moved to Albany. In 1 821, he was elected to 
the United States Senate, and was also a member 
of the Convention to revise the Constitution of 
New York. He speedily rose to distinction in 
the National Senate, and, in 1827, was re-elected 
to that body, but the year following resigned 
his seat to take the position of Governor of New 
York. 

In 1829, General Jackson, whose election to 
the Presidency was no doubt due in a great mea- 
sure to the shrewd political management of Van 
Buren, offered him the post of Secretary of State. 



4 -7 A OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

In 1 83 1, circumstances making it necessary for 
Jackson to re-organize his Cabinet, Van Buren 
resigned his Secretaryship, but was immediately 
named Minister to England. The Senate, how- 
ever, greatly to the President's dissatisfaction, 
refused to confirm the nomination, though Van 
Buren had already reached London. This rejec- 
tion of his friend aroused all of Jackson's deter- 
mined spirit. He not only succeeded in placing 
Mr. Van Buren in the Vice-Presidency during his 
own second term, but he also began to work zeal- 
ously to obtain Van Buren's nomination as his 
successor in the Presidency. He triumphed, and 
his friend received the Democratic nomination, 
and was elected by a handsome majority, taking 
his seat in the Presidential chair on the 4th of 
March, 1837. 

Shortly after Van Buren's inauguration, a finan- 
cial panic, ascribed to General Jackson's desire to 
make specie the currency of the country, and his 
consequent war upon the banks, brought the 
country to the very verge of ruin. Failures 
came fast and frequent, and all the great indus- 
tries of the nation were paralyzed. At the same 
time, the war in Florida against the Seminoles lin- 
gered along, without the slightest apparent pros- 
pect of coming to an end, entailing enormous 
expenses on the Government; while the anti- 
slavery agitation, growing steadily stronger, ex- 
cited mobs and violence, and threatened to shake 



MAR TIN VAN B UREN y, ^ c 

the Republic from its foundations. Rightly or 
wrongly, these troubles were attributed to Presi- 
dent Van Buren and his party, as resulting from 
the policy they had pursued. His popularity 
waned rapidly, and at the Presidential election in 
184'J, In which he was a candidate for re-election, 
he was overwhelmingly defeated. 

Retiring to Lindenwald, his fine estate near 
KInderhook, Van Buren, In 1844, endeavored to 
procure a re-nomination for the Presidency, but 
was unsuccessful, though a majority of delegates 
was pledged to support him. His defeat was due 
to the opposition of Southern members, based on 
the fact that he had written a letter adverse to 
the annexation of Texas. 

In 1848, he was brought forward by the Free-soil 
Democrats. Though not elected, the party which 
had nominated him showed unexpected strength, 
nearly three hundred thousand votes having been 
cast in his favor. 

Mr. Van Buren now retired from public life. 
Fourteen years later, at the age of eighty, on the 
24th of July, 1862, he died at Lindenwald. He 
was a man of more than ordinary ability, of culd- 
vated manners, and genial disposition. Though 
shrewd, he was not a dishonest politician. His 
private character was beyond reproach. He de- 
serves a conspicuous position among those who 
have been worthy successors of our Immortal 
first President. 



436 



OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, ninth 
President of the United States, was 
born at Berkeley, on the banks of the 
James River, in Virginia, on the 9th of February, 
1773. His father, Benjamin Harrison, was one of 
the signers of the Declaration of Independence, 
and for several years Governor of Virginia. Hav- 
ing received a good education at Hampden-Sid- 
ney College, young Harrison began the study of 
medicine; but the barbarities of the savages on 
our northwestern frontier having excited his 
sympathies in behalf of the suffering settlers, he 
determined to enter the army, as being a place 
where he could do good service. Accordingly, in 
I 79 1, shortly after St. Clair's defeat, he obtained 
from President Washington a commission as en- 
sign in the artillery. Though winter was coming 
on, he at once set out on foot across the wilder- 
ness to Pittsburg, whence he descended the Ohio 
to Fort Washington, now Cincinnati. He soon 
became a favorite with his superiors, and by his 
bravery in battle speedily attained the rank of 
captain. In 1797, when but twenty-four years old, 
having recently married, he resigned his commis- 
sion, to accept the secretaryship of the Northwest 
Territory. In 1801, he was appointed Governor 
of " the Indiana Territory," comprising the present 



WILLIAM HENR V IIAHKISON. ^ -, « 

States of Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. This 
office he filled satisfactorily to both whites and 
Indians for twelve years, during which time he 
negotiated many excellent treaties. 

During the summer of 1811, the Indians of the 
Northwest, under the lead of the celebrated Te- 
cumseh, and instigated, it is thought, by the emis- 
saries of England, with whom we were upon the 
point of going to war, broke out into open hos- 
tility. Collecting a considerable force of militia 
and volunteers, Harrison took the field. On the 
7th of November, he encountered and defeated 
Tecumseh on the banks of the Tippecanoe River. 
This was one of the most hotly contested battles 
ever fought between the Indians and the whites. 
Its victorious results added greatly to Harrison's 
already high reputation; and in 181 2, after Hull's 
ignominious surrender of Detroit, he was ap- 
pointed commander-in-chief of the Army of the 
Northwest. Invested with almost absolute power, 
he displayed an. energy, sagacity, and courage 
which justified the confidence reposed in him. 
By almost superhuman exertions, he managed to 
collect an arrr.y. Perry, on the loth of Septem- 
ber, 181 3, having defeated the British fleet on 
Lake Erie, HLirrison, who had been waiting the 
course of events, now hastened to take the field. 
Crossing into Canada, he repossessed Detroit, 
and, pushing on in pursuit of the flying enemy, 
finally brought them to a stand on the banks of 



4 -,3 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

the Thames. Here, after a brief but sanguhiary 
contest, the British and their savage aUies were 
defeated with heavy loss. Tecumseh, the leading 
spirit of the Indians, was left dead on the field. 
Harrison's triumph was complete and decisive. 

Shortly after this victory, which gave peace to 
the Northwest, Harrison, having had some diffi- 
culty with the Secretary of War, threw up his 
commission, but was appointed by the President 
to negotiate a treaty with the Indians. In 1816, 
he was elected to the lower house of Congress, 
where he gained considerable reputation, both as 
an active working member and as an eloquent 
and effective speaker. In 1824, he was sent from 
Ohio to the United States Senate. In 1828, he 
was appointed by John Ouincy Adams Minister 
to the Republic of Colombia ; but President Jack- 
son, who bore him no good-will, the following 
year recalled him. On his return home, he retired 
to his farm at North Bend, on the Ohio River, 
and was presently elected clerk of the Hamilton 
County Court. In 1836, he was one of the four 
candidates who ran against Van Buren for the 
Presidency. Jackson's favorite, as we have seen, 
came out ahead in this race. But, though Harri- 
son was not elected, there was such evidence of 
his popularity as to warrant the Whigs in uniting 
upon him as their candidate in the campaign of 1 840. 

That campaign was a memorable one. It was, 
perhaps, the most exciting, yet, at the same time^ 



IVIL L I A M IIENR V HA RRISON. . -> n 

one of the freest from extreme partisan bitterness, 
of any Presidential canvass ever known. As 
" the hero of Tippecanoe " and " the log-cabin 
candidate," which latter phrase w^as first used in 
contempt, Harrison swept everything before him, 
securing two hundred and thirty-four out of the 
two hundred and ninety-four electoral votes cast, 
and this, too, in spite of all the efforts of Jackson 
to prevent his success. His journey to be inau- 
gurated was one continued ovation. His inaueu- 
ration, which took place on the 4th of March, 
1 841, was witnessed by a vast concourse of peo- 
ple from all parts of the Union. His address, by 
the moderation of its tone, and by its plain, prac- 
tical, common-sense views, confirmed his immense 
popularity. Selecting for his Cabinet some of 
the most eminent public men of the country, he 
began his Administration with the brightest pros- 
pects. But, in the midst of these pleasing antici- 
pations, he was suddenly attacked by a fit of 
sickness, which, in a few days terminated in his 
death, on the 4th of /\pril, just one month after 
his inauguration. His last words, spoken in the 
delirium of fever, were characteristic of the con- 
scientiousness with which he had accepted the 
responsibilities of the Presidential office. " Sir," 
he said, as if, conscious of his approaching end, 
he were addressing his successor, " I -wish you to 
understand the principles of the Government. I 
wish them carried out. I ask nothing more." 



A.Q OUH FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

The sudden and unexpected death of President 
Harrison threw the whole country into mourning-. 
Much had been hoped from liim, as one who had 
the best interests of every portion of the Union 
at heart. There was a noble simplicity in his 
character which had won all hearts. Without 
being brilliant, his was an intellect of solid, sub- 
stantial worth. He was a frank, guileless-hearted 
man, of incorruptible integrity, and stands forth 
among our Presidents, brief as was his official 
term, as a noble representative of the plain, prac- 
tical, honest yeomanry of the land. " Not one 
single spot," says Abbott, " can be found to sully 
the brightness of his fame ; and through all the 
ages, Americans will pronounce with love and 
reverence the name of William Henry Harrison." 




JOHN TYLER. 

N the death of General Harrison, April 
4th, 1 841, for the first time in our history 
the administration of the Government de- 
volved on the Vice-President. The Q-entleman 
thus elevated to the Presidency was John Tyler, 
the son of a wealthy landholder of Virginia, at 
one time Governor of that State. Born in 
Charles City County, March 29th, 1790, young 
Tyler, at the age of seventeen, graduated from 
William and Mary College with the reputation of 



JOIIX TYLER. 441 

havinof delivered the best commencement oration 
ever heard by the faculty. When only nineteen 
he began to practice law, rising to eminence in 
his profession with surprising rapidity. Two 
years later he was elected to the Legislature. 
After serving: hve successive terms in the Lefjis- 
lature, he was, in 181 6, in 181 7, and again in 
1819, elected to Congress. Compelled by ill- 
health to resign his seat in Congress, he was, in 
1825, chosen Governor of the State. In 1827, he 
was elected to the United States Senate over the 
celebrated John Rardolph, of Roanoke. 

During the whole of his Congressional career, 
Mr. Tyler was an earnest advocate of the strict 
construction doctrines of the then Democratic 
party, opposing the United States Bank, a protec- 
tive tariff, internal improvements by the General 
Government, and, in short, all measures tending 
to the centralization of power. He was also an 
ardent opponent of any restrictions upon slavery, 
and avowed his sympathies with the nullification 
theories of Calhoun. On this last subject he 
finally came into the opposition against Jackson. 
In the session of 1833-34, he voted for Clay's 
resolutions censuring Jackson for his removal of 
the deposits. In 1836, when the Virginia Legis- 
lature instructed its representatives in Congress 
to vote for the rescinding of these resolutions, 
Mr. Tyler, who had early committed himself to 
the right of instruction, could not conscientiously 



M.2 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

comply with the request of the Legislature, nor 
hold his seat in disregard of its mandate, and ac- 
cordingly resigned. In 1838, he was again sent 
to the Legislature, and, in 1839, ^^ fi'^^ \\\\vl a 
deleo:ate to the Whig; National Convention, 
which, at Harrisburg, nominated Harrison and 
himself as candidates for President and Vice- 
President. Of the campaign which followed, and 
of the subsequent death of Harrison, we have 
already given an account. 

On receiving tidings of the President's death, 
Mr. Tyler hastened to Washington, and, on the 
6th of April, was inaugurated, and he retained 
all the Cabinet officers Harrison had appointed. 
Three days later, he issued an inaugural address, 
which was well received, both by the public and 
by his partisan friends, who, knowing his antece- 
dents, had been somewhat dubious as to what 
policy he would pursue. But this was only the 
calm before the storm. Tyler's veto of the bill 
for a " fiscal bank of the United States," led to a 
complete rupture with the party by which he had 
been elected, who charged him with treachery to 
his principles. Attempting conciliation, he only 
displeased the Democrats, who had at first shown 
a disposition to stand by him, without regaining 
the favor of the Whigs. In consequence of this 
course of action, Tyler's Cabinet all resigned, 
and in their places several Democrats were ap- 
pointed. 



JOHN TYLER. »*-> 

During his Administration several very impor- 
tant measures were adopted. Among them the 
act estabHshing a uniform system of bankruptcy, 
passed in 1841, the tariff law of 1842, and the 
scheme for the annexation of Texas, which, by the 
vigorous efforts of the President, was brought to 
a successful issue by the passage of joint resolu- 
tions in Congress, on the ist of March, 1845, j^^^ 
three days before the close of his term. The 
formal act of annexation, however, was not passed 
until a later period. One new State — Florida — 
was also admitted into the Union under Mr. 
Tyler's Administration, in 1845. 

After his retirement from the Presidency, on 
the 4th of March, 1845, ^'^^- Tyler remained in 
private life at his beautiful home of Sherwood 
Forest, in Charles City County, till, in 1861, he 
appeared as a member of the Peace Convention, 
composed of delegates from the " Border States," 
which met at Washino^ton to endeavor to arrantje 
terms of compromise between the seceded States 
and the General Government, Of this Conven- 
tion, which accomplished nothing, he was presi- 
dent. 

Subsequently, Mr. Tyler renounced his alle- 
giance to the United States, and was chosen a 
member of the Confederate Congress. While 
acting In this capacity he was taken sick at Rich- 
mond, where he died after a brief illness, on the 
17th of January, 1862. 



444 ^^^ FORMER PRESIDENTS. 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 

MECKLENBURG County, North Caro- 
lina, has the distinction of being the 
birthplace of two Presidents of the 
United States — Andrew Jackson and James Knox 
Polk — the latter of whom was born there on the 
2d of November, 1795. Like his friend and 
neighbor, General Jackson, Mr. Polk was of 
Scotch-Irish descent. It was his great-uncle. Col- 
onel Thomas Polk, who, on the 19th of May, 1 775, 
read from the steps of the court-house, at Char- 
lotte, that famous "Mecklenburg Declaration of 
Independence," to which reference has been made 
in our sketch of Jefferson. James at a very early 
age manifested decided literary tastes. After a 
vain attempt to induce him to become a store- 
keeper, his father finally consented to his enter- 
ing the University of North Carolina, at Chapel 
Hill, from which, in his twenty-third year, he grad- 
uated with the highest honors. Studying law at 
Nashville, Tennessee, where he renewed a former 
acquaintance with General Jackson, he was ad- 
mitted to the bar, and commenced practice at 
Columbia. 

In 1823, he was elected to the Legislature of 
Tennessee, and during the following year was 
married to Miss Sarah Childress, a beautiful and 
accomplished young lady, of refined manners and 



JAMES KNOX POLK. ma^ 

rare social gifts. In the fall of 1825, he was 
elected to Congress, where he remained the next 
fourteen years, during five sessions occupying the 
responsible and honorable position of Speaker of 
the House, the duties of which he performed with 
a dignity and dispassionateness which won for -him 
the warmest encomiums from all parties. In 1839, 
he was chosen Governor of Tennessee. Again a 
candidate in 1841, and also in 1843, he was both 
times defeated, — a result due to one of those 
periodical revolutions in politics which seem in- 
separable from republican forms of government, 
rather than to Mr. Polk's lack of personal popu- 
larity. 

As the avowed friend of the annexation of 
Texas, Mr. Polk, in 1844, was nominated by the 
Democrats for the Presidency. Though he had 
for his opponent no less a person than the great 
and popular orator and statesman, Henry Clay, he 
received one hundred and seventy out of two hun- 
dred and seventy-five votes in the electoral col- 
lege. He was inaugurated on the 4th of March, 
1845. Three days previously, his predecessor, 
John Tyler, had signed the joint resolutions of 
Congress favoring the annexation of Texas to the 
United States. Consequently, at the very begin- 
ning of his Administration, Mr. Polk found the 
country involved in disputes with Mexico, which, 
on the formal annexation of Texas, in December, 
1845, threatened to result in hostilities between 



^ -5 ^^'^ FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

the two countries. General Zachary Taylor was 
sent with a small army to occupy the territory 
stretching from the Neuces to the Rio Grande, 
which latter stream Texas claimed as her western 
boundary. Mexico, on the other hand, declaring 
that Texas had never extended further west than 
the Neuces, dispatched a force to watch Taylor. 
A slight collision, in April, 1846, was followed, a 
few days later, by the battles of Palo Alto and 
Resaca de la Palma, in which General Taylor was 
victorious. When the tidings of these battles 
reached Washington, the President, on May i ith, 
sent a special message to Congress, declaring 
" that war existed by the act of Mexico," and ask- 
ing for men and money to carry it on. Congress 
promptly voted ten million dollars, and authorized 
the President to call out fifty thousand volun- 
teers. Hostilities were prosecuted vigorously. An 
American army, under General Scott, finally fought 
its way to the capture of the City of Mexico. On 
the 2d of February, 1848, the treaty of Guada- 
loupe Hidalgo was signed, and ratified by the 
Senate on the loth of March following, by which 
New Mexico and Upper California, comprising a 
territory of more than half a million square miles, 
were added to the United States. In return, the 
United States agreed to pay Mexico fifteen mil- 
lion of dollars, and to assume the debts due by 
Mexico to citizens of the United States, amount- 
ine to three and a half millions more. 



JAMES KNOX POLK. ^^y 

Besides Texas, two other States were admitted 
into the Union durino- Mr. Polk's Administration. 
These were Iowa and Wisconsin — the former in 
1846 and the latter in 1848. 

When the war with Mexico first broke out, 
negotiations were pending between England and 
the United States, in regard to Oregon^ which we 
had long deemed a portion of our own territory. 
" Fifty-four forty [54" 40'] or fight !" had been one 
of the Democratic battle-cries during the canvass 
which resulted in Mr. Polk's election, and he, in 
his inaugural, had maintained that our title to 
Oregon was unquestionable. England, however, 
still urged her claim to the whole country. After 
considerable negotiation, the President finally, as 
an amicable compromise, offered the boundary of 
the parallel of 49°, giving Vancouver's Island to 
Great Britain. His offer was accepted, and war 
perhaps avoided. Another important measure of 
Mr. Polk's Administration was a modification of 
the tariff, in 1846, by which its former protective 
features were much lessened. 

On his nomination, in 1 844, Mr. Polk had pledged 
himself to the one-term principle. Consequently 
he was not a candidate for re-election in 1848, 
Havinof witnessed the inaupfuration of his sue- 
cessor. General Taylor, he returned to his home 
near Nashville. " He was then," says Abbott, 
but fifty-four years of age. He had ever been 
strictly temperate in his habits, and his health was 



448 ^^^ FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

good. With an ample fortune, a choice Hbrary, a 
cultivated mind, and domestic ties of the dearest 
nature, it seemed as though long years of tran- 
quillity and happiness were before him." But it 
was not so to be. On his way home he felt pre- 
monitory symptoms of cholera, and when he 
reached there his system was much weakened. 
Though at first able to work a little in superin- 
tending the fitting up of his grounds, he was soon 
compelled to take to his bed. He never rose 
from it again. Though finally the disease was 
checked, he had not strensfth left to brino; on the 
necessary reaction. " He died without a struggle, 
simply ceasing to breathe, as when deep and quiet 
sleep falls upon a weary man," on the 15th of 
June, 1849, 3. little more than three months after 
his retirement from the Presidency. His remains 
lie in the spacious lawn of his former home, where 
his widow still lives (1884). 



ZACHARY TAYLOR, 

TWELFTH President of the United States, 
was born in Orange County, Virginia, No- 
vember 24th, 1784. His father, Colonel Rich- 
ard Taylor, was a noted Revolutionary officer. 
His mother, as is usually the case with the moth- 
ers of men who have risen to distinction, was a 
woman of ereat force of character. Whilst he 




THE FAMOUS EAST ROOM OF THE WHITE HOUSE. 




THE WHITE HOUSE— HOME OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



ZA CHA RY TA YL OR. ^ r x 

was yet an infant, his parents removed to the then 
wilderness near the present city of Louisville. 
Here in the depths of the forest swarming with 
hostile savages, young Taylor found few educa- 
tional advantao-es, though the traininor he received 
was no doubt one to develop those military qual- 
ities he subsequently displayed. He grew up a 
I rugged, brave, self-reliant youth, with more of a 
' certain frank, almost blunt, off-handedness, than 
exterior polish. 

In 1808, he received a lieutenant's commission 
in thearmy,and in 1810 married Margaret Smith. 
His military career fairly opened in 181 2, when 
he was sent to the defense of our western border. 
While in command of Fort Harrison, on the 
Wabash, with a garrison of but fifty-two men, he 
was suddenly attacked by a band of Indians, who 
succeeded in setting fire to the fort. But the 
young captain with his handful of men extinguished 
the flames, and forced the enemy to retreat. For 
this gallant exploit, he received a brevet major's 
commission. 

Nothing remarkable occurred in his life for 
many years subsequent, until, in 1837, we find 
him a colonel in Florida, operating against the 
Seminoles. On Christmas Day of that year he 
won the battle of Okechobee, one of the most 
fiercely contested actions in the annals of Indian 
warfare. The Seminoles never rallied again in 
formidable numbers. For his signal services in 



452 



OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. 



this affair Taylor was made a brigadier, and ap- 
pointed Commander-in-chief. This post he retained 
till 1840, when, having purchased an estate near 
Baton Rouge, in Louisiana, he was, at his own 
request, placed in the command of the Department 
of the Southwest. 

While still holding this command in the spring 
of 1845, Congress having passed joint resolutions 
for the annexation of Texas, General Taylor was 
sent with four thousand troops to Corpus Christi, 
on the west bank of the Neuces, and in territory 
claimed by both Mexico and Texas. It has been 
said that it was the secret object of our Govern- 
ment to provoke a conflict with Mexico, yet so 
that the responsibility of it should appear to rest 
upon General Taylor. If such was the object, 
the scheme signally failed. Taylor made no move 
without explicit orders. It was by the President's 
positive command that, on the 8th of March, 1846, 
the wary old General began his march into the 
disputed district lying between the Neuces and 
the Rio Grande. Reaching the latter stream on 
the 28th, he built Fort Brown immediately oppo- 
site the Mexican town of Matamoras. On the 
1 2th of March the Mexican commander peremp- 
torily ordered Taylor to retire beyond the Neuces. 
A refusal to do this, he said, would be regarded 
as a declaration of war. General Taylor replied 
that his instructions would not permit him to 
retire, and that if the Mexicans saw fit to com- 



ZA CHAR Y TA YL OR. ^ c ^ 

mence hostilities he would not shrink from the 
conflict. Six thousand Mexicans at once crossed 
the Rio Grande. With less than three thousand 
troops, Taylor, on the 8th of April, attacked and 
defeated them at Palo Alto. Rallying in a strong 
position at Resaca de la Palma, the Mexicans 
were aofain attacked, and after a stubborn fiirht 
driven back across the river with great loss. These 
victories were hailed with the wildest enthusiasm 
throughout the country, and Taylor was promoted 
to a major-generalship. 

Moving rapidly forward to Monterey, he took 
that strongly fortified city, after a desperate fight 
of three days. Making it his headquarters, the 
victor was preparing for an important move, when 
General Scott, who was about to lead an expedi- 
tion against Vera Cruz, took away the best part 
of his troops, leaving him with only five thousand 
men, mostly raw volunteers. Hearing of this, 
Santa Anna, undoubtedly the ablest of the Mexican 
generals, with twenty thousand picked men, 
pushed rapidly down the Rio Grande with the 
design of overpowering Taylor's little army. The 
latter, on the 21st of February, 1847, took position 
at Buena Vista and awaited the approach of his 
antagonist, who made his appearance the following 
day, and at once began a fierce attack. Never 
was battle fought with more desperate courage 
or greater skill. Three times during the day 
victory seemed with the Mexicans ; but finally the 



Ac^ OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

Stubborn valor of Taylor's little band won the 
field. 

The tidings of this brilliant victory excited the 
greatest enthusiasm and gained an imperishable 
renown for the triumphant General. On his re- 
turn home in November, " Old Rough and Ready," 
as his soldiers familiarly called him, was greeted 
everywhere by the warmest demonstrations of 
popular applause. Even before this he had been 
nominated at public meetings for the Presidency; \ 
and now the Whigs, casting about for a popular 
candidate, made him their party nominee. Not- 
withstanding the defection from their ranks of 
Henry Wilson and others, who were opposed to 
Taylor as being a slave-holder, he was elected by 
a respectable majority, receiving one hundred and 
sixty-three electoral votes. His inauguration 
took place on Monday, March 5th, 1849. 

Though he selected an excellent Cabinet, the 
old soldier found himself in a trying position. A 
vehement struggle had commenced in Congress 
about the organization of the new Territories, the 
admission of California, and the settlement of the 
boundary between Texas and New Mexico, all 
these questions being connected with the great 
and absorbing one of the extension or non-ex- 
tension of slavery. Taylor, in his message to 
Conofress, recommended the admission of Cali- 
fornia as a free State, and that the remaining 
Territories should be allowed to form State Con- 



MILLARD FIL L MORE. ^rc 

stitutions to suit themselves. Nothing could have 
been more distasteful to the extremists of the 
South, many of whom made open threats of seces- 
sion in case of the adoption of the President's 
suggestions. To adjust the difficulty, Mr. Clay, 
in the Senate, introduced his " compromise mea- 
sures," which were still under debate, when, on 
the 4th of July, 1850, General Taylor was seized 
with bilious fever, of which he died on the 9th at 
the Presidential Mansion. His last words were : 
" I have tried to do my duty." 



MILLARD FILLMORE. 

ON the death of General Taylor, his suc- 
cessor, according to the Constitution, was 
the Vice-President. The gentleman then 
filling that position was Millard Fillmore, an emi- 
nent lawyer of New York. He was compara- 
tively a young man, having been born on the 7th 
of January, 1800, at Summer Hill, Cayuga County, 
New York. His father being poor, his means of 
education had been limited. Apprenticed at the 
age of fourteen to a clothier, he found time during 
his evenings to gratify an insatiable thirst for 
knowledge by reading. His studious habits, fine 
personal appearance, and gentlemanly bearing 
having attracted the attention of a lawyer in the 
neighborhood, that gendeman offered to receive 



AtQ OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

him in his office and to assist him pecuniarily 
until he should be admitted to the bar. This offer 
young Fillmore, then in his nineteenth year, thank- 
fully accepted. With this help, and by teaching 
during the winters, he was enabled to prosecute 
his studies to a successful issue, and in 1823 was 
admitted to the bar, opening an office in the vil- 
lage of Aurora, New York, In 1826, he married 
Miss Abigail Powers, a lady of eminent worth. 

Mr. Fillmore steadily rose in his profession. 
In 1829, he was elected by the Whigs to the State 
Legislature, and soon afterward removed to Buf- 
falo. In 1832, he was chosen a member of Con- 
gress, and again in 1837, but declined running a 
third time. He now had a wide reputation, and 
in the year 1847 was elected State Comptroller 
and removed to Albany. The following year, he 
was placed in nomination as Vice President on the 
ticket with General Taylor. When, on the 5th of 
March, 1849, Taylor took the Presidential chair, 
Mr. Fillmore, by virtue of his office, became 
President of the United States Senate. Here, the 
first presiding officer to take so firm a step, he 
announced his determination, in spite of all prece- 
dents to the contrary, to promptly call Senators to 
order for any offensive words they might utter in 
debate. 

When, after the unexpected death of General 
Taylor, on July 9th, 1850, the office of chief ex- 
ecutive devolved upon Mr. Fillmore, he found 



MILLARD FILLMORE. .^j 

his position no easy or pleasant one. His political 
opponents had a majority in both houses of Con- 
gress. The controversy on the slavery question 
had embittered public feeling, and it required a 
skillful pilot to guide the ship of state safely through 
the perils by which she was surrounded. The com- 
promise measures of Mr. Clay, to which we have 
already referred in our sketch of General Taylor, 
were finally passed, and received the approving 
signature of Mr. Fillmore. One of these meas- 
ures was the admission of California as a free 
State ; another was the abolition of slavery in the 
District of Columbia. These were thought to be 
concessions to the cause of freedom ; while, on 
the other hand, to satisfy the pro-slavery agitators, 
a bill was passed to give the owners of slaves 
power to recapture fugitive slaves in any part of 
the free States and carry them back without a jury 
trial. But, though enacted in the hope of allay- 
ing sectional animosity, these measures brouqht 
about only a temporary calm, while they aggra- 
vated the violence of extremists both North and 
South. 

The compromise measures and the fitting owX 
of the famous Japan expedition were the prir^cipal 
features of Mr. Fillmore's otherwise yneventfiil 
Administration. On the 4th of March, 1853, he 
retired from office, and immediately afterward 
took a long tour through the Southern States, 
where he met with a cordial reception. 



^cg 067? FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

In 1855, Mr. Fillmore visited Europe. He was 
everywhere received with those marks of atten- 
tion which, according to European ideas, are due 
to those who have occupied the most distinguished 
positions. On his return home, in 1856, he was 
nominated for the Presidency by the so-called 
"Know-nothing," or "American" party; but being 
very decidedly defeated, he retired to private life. 
He died at Buffalo, New York, on the 8th of 
March, 1874. 



FRANKLIN PIERCE, 



"FOURTEENTH President of the United 
States, was born at Hillsborough, N. H., 
November 23d, 1804. His father, General 
Benjamin Pierce, was a soldier of the Revolution, 
and was a man of considerable local repute, hav- 
ing also served as Governor of New Hampshire. 
Graduating from Bowdoin College in 1824, Mr. 
Pierce studied law with the celebrated Levi 
Woodbury, and commenced practice in his native 
town in 1837. ^^ married in 1834. He early 
entered the political field and, in 1833, after hav- 
ing previously served several terms in the State 
Legislature, was elected to Congress. Here he 
showed himself an earnest State-rights Democrat, 
and was regarded as a fair working member. In 
1837, when but thirty-three years of age, he was 



FRANKLIN PIERCE. ^ c n 

elected to the National Senate and, during the 
following year, removed to Concord, where he at 
once took rank among the leading lawyers of the 
State. 

Though Mr. Pierce had declined the office of 
Attorney-General of the United States, offered 
to him by President Polk, he, nevertheless, when 
hostilities were declared against Mexico, accepted 
a brigadier-generalship in the army, successfully 
marching with twenty-four hundred men from the 
sea-coast to Puebla, where he reinforced General 
Scott. The latter, on the arrival of Pierce, imme- 
diately prepared to make his long-contemplated 
attack upon the City of Mexico. At the batde of 
Contreras, on the 19th of August, 1847, where he 
led -an assauldng column four thousand strong, 
General Pierce showed himself to be a brave and 
energetic soldier. Early in the fight his leg was 
broken by his horse falling upon him, yet he kept 
his saddle during the entire conflict, which did not 
cease till eleven o'clock at night. The next day 
also, he took part in the still more desperate fight 
at Churubusco, where, overcome by pain and 
exhaustion, he fainted on the field. At Molino 
Del Rey, where the hottest batde of the war was 
fought, he narrowly escaped death from a shell 
which bursted beneath his horse. 

The American army triumphandy entered the 
City of Mexico on the 13th of September, 1847. 
General Pierce remained there until the following 



a6o ^^^ FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

December, when he returned home and resumed 
the practice of his profession. In the Democratic 
Convention which met at Baltimore, June ist, 
1852, Cass, Buclianan, and Douglas were the 
prominent candidates. After thirty-five indecisive 
ballots Franklin Pierce was proposed, and on the 
forty-ninth ballot he was nominated for the Presi- 
dency. He was elected by an overwhelming 
majority, and was inaugurated Chief Magistrate 
on the 4th of March, 1853, receiving two hundred 
and fifty-four electoral votes, while his opponent, 
General Winfield Scott, received but forty-two. 

Though both the great parties of the country 
had adopted platforms favoring the recent com- 
promise measures of Clay, and deprecating any 
renewal of the agitation of the slavery question, 
General Pierce's Administration, by reason of the 
bringing up of that very question, was one of the 
most stormy In our history. Douglas's bill for the 
organization of Kansas and Nebraska, by which 
the MissouriCompromlse Actof 1820 was repealed 
allowing slavery to enter where It had been for- 
ever excluded, and which, having the support of 
the President, became a law on the last day of 
May, 1853, excited the most intense Indignation 
in the free States, and greatly Increased the 
strength of the anti-slavery power. In Kansas a 
bitter contest, almost attaining the proportions 
of civil war, began between the partisans of 
the South and the North. This contest was 



FRANKLIN PIERCE. ^gj 

Still raging when Mr. Pierce's term drew to its 
close. Other events of his Administration were the 
bombardment of Greytown, in Central America, 
under orders from our Government ; efforts 
under Government direction for the acquisition 
of Cuba ; and the use of the President's official 
influence and patronage against the Anti-Slavery 
settlers of Kansas. 

His friends sought to obtain his nomination for 
a second term, but did not succeed. On the 4th of 
March, 1857, therefore, he retired to his home at 
Concord. That home, already bereaved by the 
loss of three promising boys — his only children, 
— was now to have a still erreater loss, — that of 
the wife and afflicted mother, who, grief-stricken 
at the sudden death, by a railroad accident, of her 
last boy, sunk under consumption, leaving Mr. 
Pierce alone in the world — wifeless as well as 
childless. 

The sorrowinof ex-President soon after took a 
trip to Madeira, and made a protracted tour In 
Europe, returning home in i860. During the 
Civil War he delivered In Concord a speech, still 
known as the " Mausoleum of Hearts Speech," 
In which he is regarded as having expressed a 
decided sympathy for the Confederates. He died 
at Concord on the 8th of October, 1869, having 
lost much of his hold on the respect of his fellow- 
citizens, both North and South, by his lack of 
decision for either. 



462 



OUR 1<0RMER PRESIDENTS. 



JAMES BUCHANAN, 



F "FIFTEENTH President of the United States, 
was born in Franklin County, Pa., April 
2 2d, 1 79 1. His father, a native of the 
North of Ireland, who had come eight years before 
to America, with no capital but his strong arms 
and energetic spirit, was yet able to give the 
bright and studious boy a good collegiate educa- 
tion at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa., where he 
graduated in 1809. He then began the study of 
law at Lancaster, and, after a three years' course, 
was admitted to practice in 181 2. He rose rap- 
idly in his profession, the business of which in- 
creased with his reputation, so that, at the age of 
forty, he was enabled to retire with an ample 
fortune. 

Mr. Buchanan early entered into politics. 
When but twenty-three years old, he was elected 
to the Legislature of Pennsylvania. Though an 
avowed Federalist, he not only spoke in favor of 
a vigorous prosecution of the War of 181 2, but 
likewise marched as a private soldier to the de- 
fense of Baltimore. In 1820, he was elected to 
the lower House of Congress, where he speedily 
attained eminence as a finished and energetic 
speaker. His political views are shown in the 
following extract from one of his speeches in 
Congress : " If I know myself, I am a politician 



JAMES BUCHANAN. ^5^ 

neither of the West nor the East, of the North nor 
of the South. I therefore shall forever avoid any 
expressions the direct tendency of which must be 
to create sectional jealousies, and at length dis- 
union — that worst of all political calamities," 
That he sincerely endeavored in his future career 
to act in accordance with the principles here 
enunciated no candid mind can doubt, however 
much he may be regarded to have failed in doing 
so, especially during the eventful last months of 
his Administration. 

In 1 83 1, at the close of his fifth term, Mr, Bu- 
chanan, having declined a re-election to Congress, 
was sent as Minister Plenipotentiary to St. Peters- 
burg, where he concluded the first commercial 
treaty between the United States and Russia. 
On his return home in 1833, he was elected to 
the National Senate. Here he became one of 
the leading spirits among the supporters of Presi- 
dent Jackson, and also supported the Administra- 
tion of Martin Van Buren. He was re-elected 
to the Senate, and his last act as a Senator was 
to report favorably on the admission of Texas, 
he being the only member of the Committee on 
Foreign Relations to do so. 

On the election of Polk to the Presidency, in 
1845. Mr. Buchanan was selected to fill the im- 
portant position of Secretary of State. He 
strongly opposed the " Wilmot Proviso," and all 
other provisions for the restriction of slavery. 



^54 ^^'^ FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

At the close of Polk's term, he withdrew to private 
life, but was subsequently sent by President 
Pierce as our Minister to England. It was while 
acting in this capacity that he united with Mason 
and Soule in the once celebrated "Ostend Mani- 
festo," in which strong ground was taken in favor 
of the annexation of Cuba to the United States, 
by purchase, if possible, but if necessary, by force. 

Returning home in 1856, he was nominated as 
the Democratic candidate for the Presidency, 
and, after a stormy campaign, elected, receiving 
one hundred and seventy-four out of three hun- 
dred and three electoral votes. His opponents 
were John C. Fremont, Republican, and Millard 
Fillmore, American. He was inaugurated on the 
4th of March, 1857. With the exception of a slight 
difficulty with the Mormons in Utah, and of the 
admission into the Union of Minnesota in 1858, 
and of Oregon in 1859, the chief interest of Mr. 
Buchanan's Administration centered around the 
slavery controversy. 

At the time of his inauguration, it is true, the 
country looked confidently forward to a period of 
political quiet. But, unhappily, the Kansas diffi- 
culty had not been settled. The Free-State party 
in that territory refused obedience to the laws 
passed by the local Legislature, on the grounds 
that that Legislature had been elected by fraudu- 
lent means. They even chose a rival Legislature, 
which, however, the President refused to recog- 



y.l JJES B UCIIANA N. . g ^ 

nize. Meanwhile the so-called reofular Legislature, 
which Congress had sanctioned, passed a bill for 
the election of delegates by the people to frame a 
State Constitution for Kansas. An election was 
accordingly held; the Convention met, and after a 
stormy and protracted session, completed its work. 
The Lecompton Constitution, as it was called, when 
laid before Congress, met with strong opposition 
from the Republicans, on the ground that it had 
been fraudulently concocted. The President, how- 
ever, gave it ail his influence, believing that it 
would bring peace to the country, while not pre- 
venting Kansas from being a free State, should its 
people so desire; and finally, after a struggle of 
extraordinary violence and duration, it received 
the sanction of Congress. 

But quiet was not restored. In the North, the 
feeling against the President and his party be- 
came intense. The election in i860 resulted in 
the triumph of Abraham Lincoln, the Republican 
candidate for the Presidency. The period between 
Lincoln's election and his inauguration was one 
of peculiar trial to President Buchanan. An at- 
tempt to incite a slave insurrection, made at Har- 
per's Ferry, in 1859, by John Brown, of Kansas, for 
which he was hanged by the authorities of Virginia, 
had created a profound sensation in the South, 
where it was regarded by many as indicative of 
the fixed purpose of the North to destroy slavery 
at all hazards. The election of Lincoln following 



^56 ^^'^ FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

SO soon after this event, added strength to their 
apprehensions. As soon as the result of the 
canvass became known, South Carohna seceded 
from the Union. Mr. Buchanan, apparently re- 
garding the fears and complaints of the South 
as not without some just grounds, seems to have 
endeavored to bring about a peaceful solution of 
the difficulties before him by attempts at concilia- 
tion. But however good his intentions may have 
been, his policy, which has been characterized as 
weak, vacillating, and cowardly, so signally failed, 
that when, on the 4th of March, 1861, he retired 
from the Presidency, he handed over to his suc- 
cessor an almost hopelessly divided Union, from 
which seven States had already seceded. 

Mr. Buchanan also used his influence for the 
purchase of Cuba as a means of extending slave 
territory. He permitted the seizure of Southern 
forts and arsenals, and the removal of muskets 
from Northern to Southern armories as the seces- 
sion movements matured, and in his message of 
December, i860, he directly cast upon the North 
the blame of the disrupted Union. 

Remaining in Washington long enough to wit- 
ness the installation of Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Buch- 
anan w^ithdrew to the privacy of Wheatland, his 
country home, near Lancaster, in Pennsylvania. 
Here he spent the remainder of his days, taking 
no prominent part in public affairs. In 1866, he 
published a volume entitled, Mr. Buchanans 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. ^(^y 

Administration, in which he explained and de- 
fended the pohcy he had pursued while in the 
Presidential office. He never married. His death 
occurred at his mansion at Wheatland, on the ist 
of June, 1868. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 

SIXTEENTH President of the Union, was 
born in Hardin County, Kentucky, on the 
1 2th of February, 1809. His parents were 
extremely poor, and could give him but scant 
opportunities of education. It is supposed that 
his ancestors came to this country from England 
among the original followers of William Penn. 
About the middle of the last century they lived in 
Berks County, Pennsylvania, whence one branch 
of the family moved to Virginia. The subject of 
this sketch was taught to read and write by his 
mother, a woman of intelligence far above her 
humble station. When he was in his eighth year, 
the family removed to the then wilderness of 
Spencer County, Indiana, where, in the course of 
three or four years, the boy Abraham, who was 
quick and eager to learn, had a chance to acquire 
the rudiments of the more ordinary branches of 
such a common-school education as was to be 
obtained in that rude frontier district; but his 
mother died when he was about eleven years old, 



i58 ^^^^ FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

which was to him a sad loss. At the age of nine' 
teen, he set out in a flat-boat, containing a cargo 
of considerable value, on a voyage to New Or- 
leans. While passing down the Mississippi, they 
were attacked by a thieving band of negroes, but 
they courageously beat off the robbers, and suc- 
ceeded in reaching their destination safely. 

In 1830, Lincoln's father removed to Decatur 
County, Illinois. Here Abraham assisted in estab- 
lishing the new home. It was on this occasion 
that he split the famous rails from which, years 
after, he received his name of "the rail-splitter." 
During the severe winter which followed, by his 
exertions and skill as a hunter, he contributed 
greatly in keeping the family from starvation. 
The next two years he passed through as a farm- 
hand and as a clerk in a country store. In the 
Black-Hawk War, which broke out in 1832, he 
served creditably as a volunteer, and on his re- 
turn home ran for the Legislature, but was de- 
feated. He next tried store-keeping, but failed ; 
and then, having learned something of surveying, 
worked two or three years quite successfully as a 
surveyor for the Government. In 1834, he was 
elected to the Legislature, in which he did the ex- 
tremely unpopular act of recording his name 
against some pro-slavery legislation of that body. 
He soon after took up the study of law, being ad- 
mitted to the bar in 1837, when he removed to 
Springfield, and began to practice. John T. Stuart 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. ah j 

was his business partner. In 1842, he married 
Miss Mary Todd, daughter of Robert S. Todd, 
Esq., of Lexington, Kentucky. He rose rapidly 
in his profession, to which having served a second 
term in the Legislature, he devoted himself assidu- 
ously till 1844, during which year he canvassed 
the State in behalf of Mr. Clay, the Whig candi- 
date for the Presidency. In 1 847, he took his seat 
in the lower house of Congress, where he was the 
only Whig from the whole State of Illinois. Ser- 
ving but a single term in Congress, Mr. Lincoln, 
in 1848, canvassed the State for General Taylor, 
and the following year was an unsuccessful can- 
didate for a seat in the United States Senate. 
He now renewed his devotion to his legal pur- 
suits, yet still retained a deep interest in national 
politics. 

The repeal of the Missouri Compromise, which 
created a profound sensation throughout the 
entire North, brought about a complete political 
revolution in Illinois, and the State went over to 
the Whigs. In this revolution Mr. Lincoln took 
a most active part, and gained a wide reputation 
as an effective stump speaker. In 1856, he was 
brought prominently before the first Republican 
National Convention, and came very near being 
nominated as its candidate for the Vice-Presidency. 
In 1858, as Republican candidate for United 
States Senator, he canvassed Illinois in opposition 
to Judge Douglas, the Democratic nominee. 



472 ^^^ FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

Douglas was, perhaps, one of the most effectivG 
pubHc speakers of the time, yet it is generally 
conceded that Lincoln, though he failed to obtain 
the Senatorship, was fully equal to his distin- 
guished and no doubt more polished opponent. 
The rare versatility and comprehensiveness of 
Mr. Lincoln's mind found full illustration in this 
exciting contest. 

During the next eighteen months, Mr. Lincoln 
visited various parts of the country, delivering 
speeches of marked ability and power ; and when, 
in May, i860, the Republican National Conven- 
tion met at Chicago, he was, on the third ballot, 
chosen as its candidate for the Presidency. In 
consequence of a division in the Democratic party, 
he was elected, receiving one hundred and eighty 
out of three hundred and three electoral votes. 
In the popular vote the result was as follows : 
Lincoln, 1,887,610; Douglas, 1,291,574; Brecken- 
ridge. Pro-slavery Democrat, 880,082 ; Bell, Con- 
stitutional-Union party, 646,124: thus leaving 
Lincoln in the minority of the popular vote by 
nearly a million. 

The election of Lincoln was at once made a 
pretext for dissolving the Union. Though he had 
repeatedly declared his intention not to interfere 
with the existing institutions of the South, and to 
hold inviolate his official oath to maintain the 
Constitution, all was of no avail to dissuade that 
section from its predetermined purpose. A 



ABRAHAM llNCOlI^. 47^ 

month before he was inaugurated six Southern 
States, having solemnly withdrawn from the 
Union, met in convention and framed the Consti- 
tution of a new and independent Confederacy. 

The President-elect left his home in Springfield 
on the nth of February, 1861, and proceeded by 
a somewhat circuitous route to Washington, de- 
Hvering short, pithy addresses in the larger 
towns and cities through which he passed. He 
also visited the Legislatures of several North- 
ern States, everywhere reiterating his purpose, 
while not disturbing the domestic relations of 
the South, to maintain the Union intact at all 
hazards. Though informed at Philadelphia 
that a plot had been formed for his assassination 
in Baltimore, he reached Washington on Feb- 
ruary 23d without molestation, and on the 4th 
of March was duly inaugurated in the presence 
of an immense assemblage from all parts of the 
country. 

In his inaugural address the new President, as- 
suring the people of the South that he had taken 
the oath to support the Constitution unreservedly, 
and that there were no grounds for any fear that 
"their property," peace, or persons were to be 
endanorered. declared it to be his firm intention 
to execute the laws, collect duties and imposts, 
and to hold the public properties In all the 
States — with no bloodshed, however, unless it 
should be forced upon the national authority. 



474 ^^^ FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

On entering upon the duties of his office, Mr, 
Lincoln found the condition of affairs far from 
encouraging. Seven States had already with- 
drawn from the Union, and others were preparing 
to follow their example. The credit of the Gov- 
ernment was low ; the army and navy not only 
small and inefficient, but scattered all through our j 
wide domain ; and the greater part of the public ! 
arms, through the treachery of certain officials, i 
were in the possession of the seceded States. | 
Still, he was hopeful and buoyant, and believed 
that the pending difficulties would soon be ad- 
justed. Even when, on the 14th of April, 1861, 
the bombardment and capture of Fort Sumter by 
a Confederate Army roused the North to intense 
action, though he immediately issued a call for 
75,000 volunteers, it was seemingly with but a 
faint idea that they would be needed. The fact 
that they were summoned for only three months — 
a period far from long enough for the organization 
of so large a body of men — is of itself sufficient 
evidence of the delusion under which he was 
laboring. 

The battle of Bull Run, on the 21st of July, 
1 861, which resulted in the total route of the 
Government forces, in a great measure dispelled 
this delusion. The real mao^nitude of the contest 
now beean to show itself to Mr. Lincoln. Yet 
his courage never faltered, nor was he less hope- 
ful of the final triumph of the Union. Cheerfully 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. .-h 

accepting the burden of cares and responsibilities 
so suddenly thrown upon him, he put his whole 
heart in the work before him, and not even the 
disasters of 1862, that gloomiest year of the war, 
could for a moment shake his confiding spirit. 
People were not wanting who found fault with the 
buoyant temper he displayed at that period ; but 
his apparent cheeriness was of as much avail as 
our armies in bringing about the triumph which 
at last came. 

Of the struggle which resulted in this triumph 
we shall give no details, only referring briefly to 
some of the more important actions of the Presi- 
dent. The most momentous of these, without 
doubt, was the Emancipation Proclamation, issued 
on the 22d of September, 1862, and to take effect 
on the I St of January, 1863, by which slavery was 
at once and forever done away with in the United 
States. In his message to Congress, the Presi- 
dent thus explains this act: "In giving freedom 
to the slave wc assure freedom, to the free, hon- 
orable alike in what we give and what we pre- 
serve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the 
last, best hope of earth. '^ "•'' '^ The way is 
plain, peaceful, glorious, just — a way which, if 
followed, the world will forever applaud and God 
must forever bless." 

In 1864, by a respectable majority in the popu- 
lar vote and a laro-e one in the electoral colleee^ 
Mr. Lincoln was re-elected to the Presidency. 



AyiS OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

At the period of his second inauguration, the 
complete triumph of the Federal authority over 
the seceded States was assured. The last battles 
of the war had been fought. War had substan- 
tially ceased. The President was looking forward 
to the more congenial work of pacification. How 
he designed to carry out this work we may judge 
from the following passage in his second inaugu- 
ral : " With malice toward none, with charity 
for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us 
to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work 
we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care 
for him who shall have borne the battle, and for 
his widow and his orphans, to do all that may 
achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace 
among ourselves and with all nations." 

Unfortunately, the kind-hearted Lincoln was 
not to carry out the work of pacification to which 
he looked forward with such bright anticipations. 
But a little more than a month after his second 
inauguration — on the night of the 14th of April, 
1865 — John Wilkes Booth, one of a small band 
of desperate conspirators, as insanely foolish as 
they were wicked, fired a pistol-ball into the brain 
of the President as he satin his box at the theatre. 
The wound proved fatal in a few hours, Mr. Lin- 
coln never recovering his consciousness. 

The excitement which the assassination of the 
President occasioned was most intense. The 
whole country was in tears. Nor was this grief 




BIRTH-PLACE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, ELIZABETHTOWN, K.Y. 




ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RESIDENCE AT SPRINGFIELD, ILL. 



AMD RE tV y OHNSOhr. ^ 7 g 

cdrifined to our own people. England, France, 
all Europe, and even the faf-off countries of China 
and Japan, joined in the lamentation. Never was 
man more universally mourned, or more deserv- 
ing of such widespread sorrow. 

The funeral honors were grand and imposing. 
His body, having been embalmed, was taken to 
his home at Springfield, Illinois, passing through 
Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Albany, Buf- 
falo, Cleveland, Chicago, and other large towns 
and cities. The entire road seemed to be lined 
with mourners, while in the chief cities the funeral 
ceremonies were equally solemn and magnificent. 



ANDREW JOHNSON, 

THE constitutional successor to President 
Lincoln, was born in Raleigh, N. C, De- 
cember 29th, 1808. Prevented by the 
poverty of his parents from receiving any school- 
ing, he was apprenticed, at the age of ten, to a 
tailor. On the expiration of his apprenticeship, 
he went to Greenville, Tenn., where he married. 
By his wife he was taught to write and to cipher, 
having already learned to read. Taking consid- 
erable interest in local politics, he formed a work- 
ingman's party in the town, by which he was 
elected alderman, and afterward Mayor. In 
1835, he was elected to a seat in the Legislature, 



.go ^^^ FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

Failing of re-election in 1837, ^^ ^^^ again suc- 
cessful in 1839; and in 1841, was elected to the 
State Senate. His ability was now recognized 
and, in 1843, he was sent to Congress as a Rep- 
resentative of the Democratic party. Having 
served five successive terms in Congress, he was, 
in 1853, elected Governor of Tennessee, and 
again in 1855. Two years later, he was called 
upon to represent Tennessee in the United States 
Senate, where he speedily rose to distinction as a 
man of great native energy. The free homestead 
bill, giving one hundred and sixty acres of the 
public land to every citizen who would settle upon 
it and cultivate it a certain number of years, owes 
its passage to his persistent advocacy. On the 
slavery question he generally went with the Dem- 
ocratic party, accepting slavery as an existing 
institution, protected by the Constitution. 

In the Presidential canvass of i860, Mr. John- 
son was a supporter of Breckinridge, but took 
stronof orrounds against secession when that sub- 
ject came up. His own State having voted itself 
out of the Union, it was at the peril of his life 
that he returned home in 1861. Attacked by a 
mob on a railroad car, he boldly faced his assail- 
ants, pistol in hand, and they slunk away. On 
the 4th of March, 1862, he was appointed Military 
Governor of Tennessee. He entered upon the 
duties of his office with a courage and vigor that 
soon entirely reversed the condition of affairs in 



ANDRE W JOHNSON. j^g j 

the State. By March, 1864, he had so far restored 
order that elections were held for State and 
County officers, and the usual machinery of civil 
government was once more set in motion. 

On the 4th of March, 1865, Mr. Johnson was 
inaugurated as Vice-President of the United 
States. The assassination of President Lincoln, 
a little more than a month afterward, placed him 
in the vacant chief executive chair. Though Mr. 
Johnson made no distinct pledges, it was thought 
by the tone of his inaugural that he would pursue 
a severe course toward the seceded States. Yet 
the broad policy of restoration he finally adopted, 
met the earnest disapproval of the great party by 
which he had been elected. The main point at 
issue was, " whether the seceded States should 
be at once admitted to representation in Congress, 
and resume all the rights they had enjoyed before 
the Civil War, without further guarantees than the 
surrender of their armies, and with no provision 
for protecting the emancipated blacks." 

Johnson, opposed to making any restrictive 
conditions, therefore persistently vetoed the vari- 
ous reconstructive measures adopted by Congress. 
Though these measures were finally passed over 
the President's vetoes by two-thirds of the votes 
of each house, yet his determined opposition to 
their policy, on the ground that it was unconsti- 
tutional, gave Congress great offense. This feeling 
finally became so intense, that the House of Repre- 



48: 



OrR FORMER PRESibENTS. 



sentatives brought articles of impeachment against 
him. The trial — the first of its kind known in out" 
history — was conducted by the United States 
Senate, presided over by the Chief Justice of the 
Supreme Court. The impeachment failed, how- 
ever, yet only lacked one vote of the two-thirds 
majority requisite to the President's conviction. 

In 1866, Mr. Johnson made a tour to Chicago, 
in the course of which he made many petty 
speeches, which brought upon him both censure 
and ridicule, but he was regarded as politically 
harmless, and to the close of his term, March 4th, 
1869, he was allowed to pursue his own policy 
with but little opposition. Retiring to his home 
at Greenville, he began anew to take an active 
part in the politics of his State. It required sev- 
eral years, however, for him to regain anything 
like his earlier popularity ; but finally, in January, 
1875, he succeeded in securing his election once 
more to the Senate of the United States, but 
he died on the 30th of the following July. 



ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

HISTORY has recorded few instances of 
the rapid and unexpected rise of individ- 
uals in humble circumstances to the hio-h- 
est positions, more remarkable than that afforded 
by the life of Ulysses S. Grant, the eighteenth 



UL YSSES S. GRANT. aQ ^ 

President of the United States. He was the son 
of Jesse R. and Hannah Simpson Grant, both na- 
tives of Pennsylvania. He was born April 27th, 
1822, at Point Pleasant, Clermont Coui)ty, Ohio. 
His early education was merely that of the com- 
mon schools of his day. By a conjunction of 
favoring circumstances, he passed, in 1839, froni 
the bark- mill of his father's tannery to the Mili- 
tary Academy at West Point. He was a diligent 
but not distingfuished student. Havincr graduated 
in 1843-, the twenty-first in a class of thirty-nine, he 
signalized himself by his bravery in the Mexican 
War, being rewarded therefor by a captain's com- 
mission. He then married Miss Julia J. Dent, of 
Saint Louis, and, after spending several years with 
his regiment in California and Oregon, left the 
service in July, 1854, tried farming and the real 
estate business with moderate success, and finally 
was taken by his father as a partner in his leather 
store at Galena. 

He was yet thus humbly employed when Presi- 
dent Lincoln Issued his call for 75,000 three 
months' men. Marching to Springfield at the 
head of a company of volunteers, his military 
knowledge made him exceedingly useful to Gov- 
ernor Yates, who retained him as mustering officer, 
until he was commissioned colonel of the Twenty- 
first Regiment of Illinois Volunteers, on the 1 7th of 
June, t86i. The following August, having been 
made a brigadier-general, he took command atCai- 



^gg OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

ro, where he displayed much activity and attracted 
some attention. On the 7th of November he 
fought the Battle of Belmont, where he had a 
horse shot under him. His capture of Fort Don- 
elson, with all its defenders, on the 15th of Febru- 
ary, 1862, after a severe battle resulting in the first 
real and substantial triumph of the war, at once 
gave Grant a national reputation. For this bril- 
liant victory he was immediately rewarded by a 
commission as major-general of volunteers. 

Soon after the capture of Donelson, General 
Grant was placed in command of an important 
expedition up the Tennessee River. At Pittsburg 
Landing, while preparing for an attack on Corinth, 
a part of his army was surprised, at daybreak of 
the 6th of April, by an overwhelming force of 
Confederates, and driven from their camp with 
severe loss. Rallying his men that evening under 
the protection of the gun-boats. Grant, having 
been reinforced during the night, renewed the 
battle the following morning, and, after an obsti- 
nate contest, compelled the enemy to fall back 
upon Corinth. 

In July, General Grant was placed in command 
of the Department of West Tennessee, with his 
headquarters at Corinth, which the Confederates 
had evacuated in the previous May. On the 19th 
of September he gained a complete victory over 
the Confederates at luka, and then removed his 
headquarters to Jackson, Tennessee. Vicksburg, 



ULYSSES S. GRANT. ^gy 

on the Mississippi, having been strongly fortified 
and garrisoned by the enemy, the duty of taking 
that place devolved upon Grant. After several 
attempts against it from the north, all of which 
resulted more or less disastrously, he finally 
moved his army down the west bank of the river, 
and, crossing to the east side, at a point below the 
city, began, on the i8th of May, 1863, a formal 
siege, which lasted until the 4th of the ensuing 
July, when the place was surrendered, with nearly 
thirty thousand prisoners and an immense amount 
of military stores. 

Grant's capture of Vicksburg, the result of that 
tenacity of purpose which is a marked trait in his 
character, was hailed with unbounded delight by 
the whole country. He was immediately commis- 
sioned a major-general in the regular army, and 
placed in command of the entire military Division 
of the Mississippi. Congress also, meeting in 
December, ordered a gold medal to be struck for 
him, and passed resolutions of thanks to him and 
his army. Still further, a bill reviving the grade 
of lieutenant-general was passed, and, on the ist 
of March, 1864, Grant was appointed by Presi- 
dent Lincoln to the position thus created. 

Having now been placed at the head of an 
army of seven hundred thousand men. Grant, 
announcing that his headquarters would be in the 
field, " at once planned two movements, to be di- 
rected simultaneously against vital points of the 



488 ^^^ FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

Confederacy." One of these, with Richmond for 
its point of attack, he commanded in person ; the 
other, against Atlanta, in Georgia, was headed by 
General Sherman. 

On the 3d of May, Grant began the movement 
against Richmond, crossing the Rapidan, and 
pushing determinedly into the " Wilderness," 
where, met by Lee, a bloody battle was fought, 
foiling his first attempt to place himself between 
the Confederate Army and their threatened capi- 
tal. Advancing by the left flank, he was again 
confronted by Lee at Spottsylvania, and com- 
pelled to make another flank movement, resulting 
in his again being brought to a stand by his wary 
antaofonist. Declarinor his determination " to 
fight it out on this line if it took him all summer," 
Grant still pushed on by a series of flank move- 
ments, each culminating in a sanguinary battle, 
in which his losses were fearful, and finally, pass- 
ing Richmond on the east, crossed the James, 
and laid siege to the city of Petersburg, the cap- 
ture of which now became the great problem of 
the war. 

Grant crossed the James on the 15th of June, 

1864. It was not until the beginning of April, 

1865, after a series of desperate assaults, coming 
to a crisis in the battle of Five Forks, in which 
Grant gained a crowning triumph, that Peters- 
burg finally succumbed. The fall of Petersburg 
compelled Lee to evacuate Richmond with the 



UL YSSES S. GRANT. ^gg 

remnant of his army. He retreated 
westward toward Danville, followed closely by 
Grant. At the same time Sherman, who had met 
with almost unparalleled success in his part of the 
concerted movement, was marching triumphantly 
through Alabama and Georgia to the sea-coast, 
along which he swept northward, and was threat- 
ening Lee from another quarter, so that, placed 
between two large armies, both flushed with vic- 
tory, no* other resource was left him than to sur- 
render the thin remnant of his force. This he 
did, to Grant, at Appomattox Court-House, on the 
9th of April, 1865, and the "Great Rebellion " was 
thus virtually brought to a close. 

On the conclusion of the war, Grant made 
Washington his headquarters, and was, in July, 
1866, commissioned General of the United States 
Army — a rank which had been specially created 
to do him honor. In August, 1867, he for awhile 
acted as Secretary of War ad interim under 
President Johnson ; but, notwithstanding the lat- 
ter's earnest request to the contrary, he, when the 
Senate refused to sanction Stanton's removal, 
restored the position to that gentleman, from 
whom it had been taken. 

In the Republican National Convention, held at 
Chicago, on the 21st of May, 1868, General Grant 
was on the first ballot unanimously nominated as 
th.e candidate of that party for the Presidency. 
His Democratic competitor was Horatio Sey- 



^QO OUR- FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

mour, of New York. The election resulted in 
Grant receiving two hundred and fourteen out of 
two hundred and ninety-four electoral votes. He 
was inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1869. 
Though brought into conHict with some of the 
prominent men of his party by his determined 
effort to bring about the annexation of San Do- 
mingo to the United States, President Grant's 
first official term gave satisfaction to the mass of 
his Republican adherents. During the first six 
months of his term the public debt was reduced 
some fifty millions of dollars, order and prosper- 
ity were rapidly restored throughout the Southern 
States, and the hatred and animosities of the war 
were greatly softened, though Grant's firmness in 
many instances had begotten severe opposition. 

In their National Convention at Philadelphia, 
on the 5th of June, 1872, he was nominated by 
acclamation for a second term. His opponent in 
this contest was Horace Greeley, who was sup- 
ported by both the Democrats and the so-called 
Liberal Republicans. The election resulted in 
the success of General Grant, who received two 
hundred and sixty-eight out of the three hundred 
and forty-eight electoral votes cast. He was in- 
augurated a second time on the 4th of March, 

1873. 

Grant's second term was one of improving 

prospects, though the transitions from the exces- 
sive inflations attendant on the war to the solid 



UL YSSES S. GRANT. ^n^ 

business basis of peace made financial affairs un- 
steady and led to the famous panic of '']'})• But 
prosperity returned gradually and on a more solid 
basis, and the great Centennial Exposition of 1876, 
at Philadelphia, was a fitting crown upon the final 
year of Grant's eight years of Presidential work 
and honor. In his last message to Congress 
he urged compulsory common-school education 
where other means of education are not provided; 
the exclusion of all sectarianism from public 
schools; the prohibition of voting, after 1890, to 
all persons unable to read and write ; the perma- 
nent separation of Church and State; entire reli- 
gious freedom for all sects, and legislation to 
speedily secure a return to sound currency. 

General Grant was strongly urged to accept 
the nomination for a third term, but declined the 
honor and retired to private life, March 4th, 1877. 
After his long-continued public service, an ex- 
tended trip abroad was deemed desirable by the 
General. Arrangements were matured accord- 
ingly, and on May 17th, 1877, he sailed from Phila- 
delphia in the steamer Indiana. His journey was 
prosperous in every respect. He made the tour 
of the world and reached San Francisco Septem- 
ber 20th, 1879. Everywhere he was the recipient 
of the hiofhest honors. The most dlstlno-uished 
crowned heads and military leaders of all nations 
were proud to do him honor, and he in return did 
many personal friendly offices which were most 



,g. OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

gratefully recognized. He finally settled in New 
York city, where he is justly honored and highly 
appreciated by all. 



RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES, 
the nineteenth incumbent of the Presiden- 
tial chair, was born at Delaware, Ohio, i 
October 4th, 1822. He enjoyed the most favorable 
surroundings of refinement and culture in his ^ 
youth, and graduated at Kenyon College in 1842. 
In 1845, ^^ graduated from the Harvard Law 
School and began practice in Fremont, Ohio, 
from which place he removed to Cincinnati in 1849. 
He served as City Solicitor for several years, 
until the breaking out of the war, when he took 
the field as major of the Twenty-third Ohio Volun- 
teers. He had a splendid record, rising to the com- 
mand of a division, being breveted major-general, 
and continuing until June ist, 1865, when he re- 
sig-ned his rank and returned to Cincinnati. 

In December, 1865, he entered Congress, to 
which he had been elected before he left the army. 
He was re-elected to this position, but resigned 
to become Governor of Ohio, to which office he 
was three times chosen, an honor never before 
conferred in that State. The prominent issues in 
his last campaign for the Governorship were the 




^. 




kVTHEkFORD B. HAYES. ig* 

currency and the school questions. So satis- 
factory were his view^ on these measures, that he 
received much favorable mention for nomination 
in the Presidential campaign then approaching-. 

On June i6th, 1876, the Republican Convention 
met at Cincinnati, and on the seventh ballot 
Hayes received the nomination over James G. 
Blaine and Benjamin H. Bristow. Hayes received 
three hundred and eighty-four votes, Blaine three 
hundred and fifty-one, and Bristow twenty-one. 
The contest was bitter in the Convention and in 
the succeeding canvass, and its close was a disputed 
election, the electoral votes of Florida, South Caro- 
lina, and Louisiana being claimed by both parties, 
as was one electoral vote of Oreg^on also. The 
contest was finally referred to an Electoral Com- 
mission, which decided by a vote of eight to seven 
that Hayes was elected, and he, accordingly, suc- 
ceeded General Grant in the office on March 4th, 
1877, the inauguration occurring on the next day, 
Monday, March 5th. The great feature of this 
Administration was the full resumption of specie 
payments, a success achieved without jar or con- 
fusion of any kind in the business of the country. 

At the close of his term, March 4th, 1881, Mr. 
Hayes turned over the Administration to his suc- 
cessor amid peace and prosperity such as the na- 
tion seldom enjoyed, and returned to his home in 
Ohio, where he still lives (June, 1884), respected 
and beloved by all his fellow-citizens. 



498 



OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



THE nation's choice for the twenty-fourth 
Presidential term, James Abram Garfield, 
was born November 19th, 1 831, at Orange, 
Cuyahoga County, Ohio. His ancestors were early 
immigrants of New England, and they bore noble 
part in all the hardships and sufferings of the Rev- 
olutionary and earlier periods. His parents were 
Abram and Eliza Garfield, his father dying when 
James was but a child, and his mother surviving to 
see his exaltation to the Presidency and his un- 
timely end. 

James Garfield's early life was one filled with 
the struggles incident to poverty on the frontier 
settlements. On the farm, on the canal, and at 
the carpenter's bench, he toiled energetically, read- 
ing and studying all the while, that he might fit 
himself for college. He finally betook himself to 
teaching as a means of subsistence, and while so 
engaged pressed his own education diligently. He 
decided to enter Williams College, Mass., which 
he did, in June, 1854, in a class nearly two years 
advanced. He had saved some money, but he 
worked during his vacations and at spare mo- 
ments, and so was enabled to complete his course, 
though somewhat in debt, graduating August, 1856. 
While yet a student, he became much interested in 
politics and made some speeches on his favorite 
views. 




^Jkd^i^y^'^e^^C 



1 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. cqI 

After his graduation, he entered Hiram College, 
Ohio, as a teacher of ancient languages and liter- 
-ature, and soon after became its President. Mean- 
while, he was active in a wide variety of good 
works, preaching, addressing temperance meet- 
ings, making political speeches, and at the same 
time pursuing the study of the law. In 1858, he 
married Lucretia Rudolph, who had been a fellow- 
student with him in his academic schooldays. 

As a logical and effective political speaker, Gar- 
field soon became prominent, and in 1859 was 
elected to the Senate of his native State, where he 
immediately took high rank, although he still con- 
tinued to be much engaged in literary and relig- 
ious work. In August, 1861, he solemnly consid- 
ered the question of entering the army, and wrote 
his conclusion thus : " I regard my life as given to 
my country. I am only anxious to make as much 
of it as possible before the mortgage on it is fore- 
closed." 

As a soldier, Garfield was thorough, brave, and 
efficient. He had a large share of hard fighting in 
the West and the Southwest, but he won high praise 
in it all, rising from the rank of lieutenant-colonel 
to that of brio-adier-creneral and chief of staff to 
General Rosecrans, in which capacity he served 
until the battle of Chickamauga had been fought, 
when he was promoted to a major-generalship 
for "gallant and meritorious conduct" on that 
bloody field. 



f02 ^^'^ FORMER PRE^WFMfS. 

Just before this battle, Garfield had been chosen 
by his fellow-citizens in Ohio as their representa- 
tive in Congress. To accept this post was deemed 
his duty by all his friends and advisers, so he re- 
signed his commission on the 5th of December, 
1863, and took his place in Congress at less than 
half the salary drawn by one of his military rank. 
In this new position he exercised the same earn- 
est conscientiousness he had ever shown. He was 
a master workman in every line of duty there for 
seventeen years, during which period he left the 
imprint of his ability and patriotism as thoroughly 
upon the legislation of the country as any one 
man in public service. He certainly realized the 
meaning of the title, " a public benefactor," as de- 
fined in his own speech made on December loth, 
1878, in which he said: "The man who wants to 
serve his country must put himself in the line of 
its leadinof thouo^ht, and that is the restoration of 
business, trade, commerce, industry, sound polit- 
ical economy, hard money, and the payment of all 
obligations, and the man who can add anything in 
the direction of accomplishing any of these pur- 
poses is a public benefactor." 

No man with such an ideal could fail to at once 
take high rank. Nor did Garfield fail to do so. 
At the outset he was recognized as a leader, and 
his influence grew with his service. He was at 
once appointed on the Military Committee, under 
the chairmanship of General Schenck and the col- 




Gen. GARFIELD'S Home, Mentor, Ohio. 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. cqc 

leagueshlp of Farnsworth, both fresh from the 
field. In this work he was of great service — just 
as Rosecrans anticipated he would be. His thor- 
ough knowledge of the wants of the army was of 
the first value in all legislation pertaining to mil- 
itary matters. He was appointed chairman of a 
select committee of seven appointed to investigate 
the alleged frauds in the money-printing bureau 
of the Treasury, and on other very important and 
complicated matters he rendered service of the 
greatest value. 

He did most excellent work, as an orator, on 
many momentous questions, as the following partial 
list of his published Congressional speeches will 
show : " Free Commerce between the States ;" 
"National Bureau of Education;" "The Public 
Debt and Specie Payments ;" " Taxation of United 
States Bonds ;" " Ninth Census ;" " Public Expen- 
ditures and Civil Service;" "The Tariff;" " Cur^ 
rency and the Banks ;" " Debate gn the Currency 
Bill ;" " On the McGarrahan Claim ;" " The Right 
to Originate Revenue Bills ;" " Public Expendi- 
tures;" ''National Aid to Education," "The Cur- 
rency ;" " Revenues and Expenditures ;" " Curren- 
cy and the Public Faith ;" "Appropriations;" "Count- 
ing the Electoral Vote ;" " Repeal of the Resump- 
tion Law ;" " The New Scheme of American Fi- 
nance ;" "The Tariff;"" Suspension and Resump- 
tion of Specie Payments ;" " Relation of the Na- 
tional Government to Science ;" " Sugar Tariff." 



5o6 



OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. 



It was a surprise to nobody, but a real pleasure 
to multitudes, when at Chicago, on June 8th, 1880, 
James A. Garfield received the nomination for 
the Presidency by three hundred and ninety-nine 
votes in a total of seven hundred and fifty-five. 
This was upon the thirty-sixth ballot of the nomi- 
nating Convention, but not until then had Garfield 
been prominently brought forward. His nomi- 
nation was at once made unanimous in the Con- 
vention, and hailed with joy throughout the land. 
His chief opponent was the superb soldier, Major- 
General Winfield S. Hancock, but Garfield and 
Arthur received two hundred and fourteen of 
three hundred and sixty-nine electoral votes and 
secured the hiofhest offices in the orift of the na- 
tion. 

Garfield was inauorurated amid general satisfac- 
tion throughout the nation. His venerable mother 
saw her son's exaltation on that memorable In- 
auguration Day, and received from him, as the 
newly made President, his kiss of filial love. 
Every department of the public service felt the 
force of the new regime, and prosperity beamed 
on every side until the fatal Saturday, July 2d, 
1 88 1, when the assassin's bullet cut short the era 
of joy and hopefulness which had just fairly 
dawned. Of the subsequent weeks of suffering 
and anxiety, through which that valuable life 
trembled in the balance, while the nation's hopes 
and fears rose and fell alternately, and of the sad, 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. cog 

sad end at Elberon, New Jersey, on September 
29th, the world is well inlbrmed. The wound 
then made in the nation's heart is open still, and 
further mention need not here be made of those 
agonizing and still fresh experiences. But the 
fittest tribute that can here be paid to ^Garfield's 
memory is from the lips of his intimate associate and 
fellow-worker, Hon. James G. Blaine. By request 
of the national authorities, he delivered, February 
27th, 1882, the official eulogy upon the deceased 
President. All the magnates of the capital were 
present in the Hall of Representatives to hear 
that oration, from which masterly effort the follow- 
ing somewhat disconnected, but none the less 
effective, paragraphs are taken : 

No manly man feels anything of shame in 
looking back to early struggles with adverse cir- 
cumstances, and no man feels a worthier pride than 
when he has conquered the obstacles in his pro- 
gress. But no one of noble mold desires to be 
looked upon as having occupied a menial position, 
as having been repressed by a feeling of inferiority, 
or as having suffered the evils of poverty until re- 
lief was found at the hand of charity. General 
Garfield's youth presented no hardships which 
family love and family energy did not overcome, 
subjected him to no privations which he did not 
cheerfully accept, and left no memories save those 
which were recalled with delight and transmitted 
with profit and with pride. 



5IO 



OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. 



Garfield's early opportunities for securing art 
education were extremely limited, and yet were 
sufficient to develop in him an intense desire to 
learn. He could read at three years of age, and 
each winter he had the advantage of the district 
school. He read all the books to be found within 
the circle of his acquaintance ; some of them he 
got by heart. While yet In childhood he was a 
constant student of the Bible, and became familiar 
with Its literature. The dignity and earnestness 
of his speech In his maturer life gave evidence of 
this early training. At eighteen years of age he 
was able to teach school, and thenceforward his 
ambition was to obtain a collegfe education. To 
this end he bent all his efforts, working in the har- 
vest field, at the carpenter's bench, and, in the 
winter season, teaching the common schools of 
the neighborhood. While thus laboriously occu- 
pied he found time to prosecute his studies, and 
was so successful that at twenty-two years of age 
he was able to enter the junior class at Williams 
College, then under the presidency of the vener- 
able and honored Mark Hopkins, who. In the full- 
ness of his powers, survives the eminent pupil to 
whom he was of inestimable service. 

The history of Garfield's life to this period pre- 
sents no novel features. He had undoubtedly 
shown perseverance, self-reliance, self-sacrifice, 
and ambition — qualities which, be it said for the 
honor of our country, are everywhere to be found 



yAMES A. GARFIELD. e j j 

among the young men of America. But from his 
graduation at Williams onward, to the hour of 
his tragical death, Garfield's career was eminent 
and exceptional. Slowly working through his 
educational period, receiving his diploma when 
twenty-four ye.irs of age, he seemed at one bound 
to spring into conspicuous and brilliant success. 
Within six years he was successively president of 
a college. State Senator of Ohio, Major-General 
of the Army of the United States, and Repre- 
sentadve-elect to the National Congress. A 
combination of honors so varied, so elevated, within 
a period so brief, and to a man so young, is without 
precedent or parallel in the history of the country. 
Garfield's army life was begun with no other 
military knowledge than such as he had hastily 
gained from books in the few months preceding 
his march to the field. Stepping from civil life to 
the head of a regiment, the first order he received 
when ready to cross the Ohio, was to assume com- 
mand of a brigade, and to operate as an indepen- 
dent force in Eastern Kentucky. His immediate 
duty was to check the advance of Humphrey 
Marshall, who was marching down the Big Sandy 
with the intention of occupying, in connection with 
other Confederate forces, the entire territory of 
Kentucky, and of precipitating the State into se- 
cession This was at the close of the year i86„. 
Seldom, if ever, has a young college professoi 
been thrown into a more embarrassing and dis 



r J 2 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

couraging position. He knew just enough of 
military science, as he expressed it himself, to 
measure the extent of his ignorance, and with a 
handful of men he was marchinor, in rouofh winter 
weather, into a strange country, among a hostile 
population, to confront a largely superior force 
under the command of a distinguished graduate 
of West Point, who had seen active and import- 
ant service in two preceding wars. 

The result of the campaign is matter of history. 
The skill, the endurance, the extraordinary energy 
shown by Garfield, the courage he imparted to his 
men, raw and untried as himself, the measures he 
adopted to increase his force and to create in the 
enemy's mind exaggerated estimates of his num- 
bers, bore perfect fruit in the routing of Marshall, 
the capture of his camp, the dispersion of his 
force, and the emancipation of an important 
territory from the control of the Rebellion. Com- 
ing at the close of a long series of disasters to 
the Union arms, Garfield's victory had an unusual 
and extraneous importance, and in the popular 
judgment elevated the young commander to the 
rank of a military hero. With less than two 
thousand men in his entire command, with a mo- 
bilized force of only eleven hundred, without can- 
non, he had met an army of five thousand and 
defeated them, driving Marshall's forces succes- 
sively from two strongholds of their own selec- 
tion, fortified with abundant artillery. Major- 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



513 



General Buell, commanding the Department of 
the Ohio, an experienced and able soldier of the 
Regular Army, published an order of thanks and 
conorratulation on the brilliant result of the Bi^r 
Sandy campaign, which would have turned the 
head of a less cool and sensible man than Gar- 
field. Buell declared that his services had called 
into action the highest qualities of a soldier, and 
President Lincoln supplemented these words of 
praise by the more substantial reward of a briga- 
dier-general's commission, to bear date from the 
day of his decisive victory over Marshall. 

Early in 1863, Garfield was assigned to the 
highly important and responsible post of chief of 
staff to General Rosecrans, then at the head of 
the Army of the Cumberland. Perhaps in a great 
military campaign, no subordinate officer requires 
sounder judgment and quicker knowledge of men 
than the chief of staff to the commanding general. 
An indiscreet man in such a posidon can sow more 
discord, breed more jealousy, and disseminate 
more strife than any other officer in the entire or- 
ofanizadon. When General Garfield assumed his 
new duties he found various troubles already well 
developed, and seriously affecting the value and 
efficiencyof the Army of the Cumberland. The en- 
ergy, the impartiality, and the tact with which he 
sought to allay these dissensions, and to discharge 
the dudes of his new and trying position, will 
always remain one of the most striking proofs ot 



5H 



OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. 



his great versatility. His military duties closed 
on the memorable field of Chickamauga, a field 
which, however disastrous to the Union arms, gave 
to him the occasion of winning imperishable laurels. 
The very rare distinction was accorded him of a 
great promotion for his bravery on a field that 
was lost. President Lincoln appointed him a ma- 
jor-general in the army of the United States for 
gallant and meritorious conduct in the battle of 
Chickamauga. 

The Army of the Cumberland was reorganized 
under the command of General Thomas, who 
promptly offered Garfield one of its divisions. He 
was extremely desirous to accept the position, but 
was embarrassed by the fact that he had, a year 
before, been elected to Congress, and the time 
when he must take his seat was drawing near. 
He preferred to remain in the military service, and 
had within his own breast the largest confidence 
of success in the wider field which his new rank 
opened to him. Balancing the arguments on the 
one side and the other, anxious to determine what 
was for the best, desirous above all things to do 
his patriotic duty, he was decisively influenced by 
the advice of President Lincoln and Secretary 
Stanton, both of whom assured him that he could, 
at that time, be of especial value In the House of 
Representatives. He resigned his commission of 
Major-General on the fifth day of December, 1863, 
and took his seat in the house of Representatives 



JAMES A. GARFIELD, 



515 



on the seventh. He had served two years and 
four months in the army, and had just completed 
his thirty-second year. 

The Thirty-Eighth Congress is pre-emlnenth' 
entitled in history to the designation of the War 
Congress. It was elected while the war was fla- 
grant, and every member was chosen upon the is- 
sues involved in the continuance of the struggle. 
The Thirty-Seventh Congress had, indeed, legis- 
lated to a large extent on war measures, but it 
was chosen before anyone believed that secession 
of the States would be actually attempted. The 
magnitude of the work which fell upon its suc- 
cessor was unprecedented, both in respect to the 
vast sums of money raised for ^he support of the 
army and navy, and of the new and extraordinary 
powers of legislation which it was forced to ex- 
ercise. Only twenty-four States were represented, 
and one hundred and eighty-two members were 
upon its roll. Among these were many dis- 
tinguished party leaders on both sides, veterans 
in the public service, with established reputations 
for ability, and with that skill which comes only 
from parliamentary experience. Into this assem- 
blage of men Garfield entered without special 
preparation, and it might almost be said unex- 
pectedly. The question of taking command of a 
division of troops under General Thomas, or tak- 
ing his seat in Congress, was kept open till the 
last moment — so late, indeed, that the resignatiun 



5i6 



OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. 



of his military commission and his appearance in 
the House were almost contemporaneous. He 
wore the uniform of a Major-General of the 
United States Army on Saturday, and on Monday, 
in civilian's dress, he answered to the roll-call as a 
Representative in Congress from the State of 
Ohio. 

With possibly a single exception, Garfield was 
the youngest mem.ber in the House when he en- 
tered, and was but seven years from his college 
graduation. But he had not been in his seat sixty 
days before his ability was recognized and his place 
conceded. He stepped to the front with the confi- 
dence of one who belonged there. The House 
was crowded with strong men of both parties ; 
nineteen of them have since been transferred to 
the Senate, and many of them have served with 
distinction in the gubernatorial chairs of their re- 
spective States, and on foreign missions of great 
consequence ; but among them all none grew so 
rapidly, none so firmly as Garfield. As is said by 
Trevelyan of his parliamentary hero, Garfield suc- 
ceeded " because all the world in concert could 
not have kept him in the background, and because 
when once in the front he played his part with a 
prompt intrepidity and a commanding ease that 
were but the outward symptoms of the immense 
reserves of energy on which it was in his power 
to draw." Indeed, the apparently reserved force 
which Garfield possessed was one of his great 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. r j m 

characteristics. He never did so well but that it 
seemed he could easily have done better. He 
never expended so much strength but that he 
seemed to be holding additional power at call. 
This is one of the happiest and rarest distinctions 
of an effective debater, and often counts for as 
much in persuading an assembly as the eloquent 
and elaborate argument. 

The great measure of Garfield's fame was filled 
by his service in the House of Representatives. 
His military life, illustrated by honorable perform- 
ance, and rich in promise, was, as he himself felt, 
prematurely terminated, and necessarily incom- 
plete. Speculation as to what he might have done 
in a field where the great prizes are so few, cannot 
be profitable. It is sufficient to say that, as a sol- 
dier, he did his duty bravely; he did it intelligently; 
he won an enviable fame, and he retired from the 
service without blot or breath against him. As a 
lawyer, though admirably equipped for the pro- 
fession, he can scarcely be said to have entered on 
its practice. The few efforts he made at the bar 
were distinguished by the same high order of talent 
which he exhibited on every field where he was 
put to the test, and if a man may be accepted as a 
competent judge of his own capacities and adapta- 
tions, the law was the profession to which Garfield 
should have devoted himself. But fate ordained 
otherwise, and his reputation in history will rest 
largely upon his service in the House of Repre- 



5-8 



OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. 



sentatives, to a place in which he was chosen for 
nine consecutive terms, 

Garfield's nomination to the Presidency, while 
not predicted or anticipated, was not a surprise to 
the country. His prominence in Congress, his 
solid qualities, his wide reputation, strengthened 
by his then recent election as Senator from Ohio, 
kept him in the public eye as a man occupying the 
very highest rank among those entitled to be 
called statesmen. It was not mere chance that 
brought him this high honor. "We must," says 
Mr. Emerson, "reckon success a constitutional 
trait. If Eric is in robust health, and has slept 
well, and is at the top of his condition, and thirty 
years old at his departure from Greenland, he will 
steer west, and his ships will reach Newfoundland. 
But take Eric out, and put in a stronger and bolder 
man, and the ships will sail six hundred, one thou- 
sand, fifteen hundred miles farther, and reach Lab- 
rador and New England. There Is no chance in 

o 

results." 

As a candidate, Garfield steadily grew in popu- 
lar favor. He was met with a storm of detraction 
at the very hour of his nomination, and it con- 
tinued with increasinor volume and momen.':um 
until the close of his victorous campaign: — 

" No might nor greatness in mortality 
Can censure 'scape; back-wounding calumny 
The whitest virtue strikes. What king so strong 
Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue ?" 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. r j g 

Under it all he was calm, and strong, and confi- 
dent; never lost his self-possession, did no unwise 
act, spoke no hasty or ill-considered word. In- 
deed, nothing in his whole life is more remark- 
able or more creditable than his bearing through 
those five full months of vituperation — a prolonged 
agony of trial to a sensitive man, a constant and 
cruel draft upon the powers of moral endurance. 
The great mass of these unjust imputations passed 
unnoticed, and with the general debris of the cam- 
paign fell into oblivion. But in a few instances 
the iron entered his soul, and he died with the in- 
jury unforgotten, if not unforgiven. 

One aspect of Garfield's candidacy was unpre- 
cedented. Never before, in the history of partisan 
contests in this country, had a successful Presiden- 
tial candidate spoken freely on passing events and 
current issues. To attempt anything of the kind 
seemed novel, rash, and even desperate. The 
older class of voters recalled the unfortunate Ala- 
bama letter, in which Mr. Clay was supposed to 
have signed his political death warrant. They re- 
membered also the hot-tempered effusion by 
which General Scott lost a large share of liis 
popularity before his nomination, and the unfor- 
tunate speeches which rapidly consumed the re- 
mainder. The younger voters had seen Mr. 
Greeley in a series of vigorous and original ad- 
dresses, preparing the pathway for his own defeat. 
Unmindful of these warnings, unheeding the ad- 



520 



OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. 



vice of friends, Garfield spoke to large crowds as 
he journeyed to and from New York in August, 
to a great multitude in that city, to delegations 
and deputations of every kind that called at Mentor 
during the summer and autumn. With innumer- 
able critics, watchful and eager to catch a phrase 
that might be turned into odium or ridicule, or a 
sentence that might be distorted to his own or 
his party's injury, Garfield did not trip or halt in 
any one of his seventy speeches. This seems all 
the more remarkable when it is remembered that 
he did not write what he said, and yet spoke with 
such logical consecutiveness of thought, and such 
admirable precision of phrase as to defy the acci- 
dent of misreport, and the malignity of misrepre- 
sentation. 

In ^the beginning of his Presidential life, Gar- 
field's experience did not yield him pleasure or 
satisfaction. The duties that eno^ross so laro^e a 
portion of the President's time were distasteful to 
him, and were unfavorably contrasted with his 
lemslative work. *T have been dealinof all these 
years with ideas," he impatiently exclaimed one day, 
" and here I am dealing only with persons, I have 
been heretofore treating of the fundamental prin- 
ciples of government, and here I am considering 
all day whether A or B shall be appointed to this 
or that office." He was earnestly seeking some 
practical way of correcting the evils arising from 
the distribution of overgrown and unwieldy pat- 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. c^j 

ronage — evils always appreciated and often dis- 
cussed by him, but whose magnitude had been more 
deeply impressed upon his mind since his acces- 
sion to the Presidency. Had he lived, a compre- 
hensive improvement in the mode of appointments 
would have been proposed by him. 

Garfield's ambition for the success of his ad- 
ministration was hiorh. With strong caution and 
conservatism in his nature, he was in no danger 
of attempting rash experiments or of resorting to 
the empiricism of statesmanship. But he believed 
that renewed and closer attention should be Q^iven 
to questions affecting the material interests and 
commercial prospects of fifty millions of people. 
He believed that our continental relations, exten- 
sive and undeveloped as they are, involved re- 
sponsibility, and could be cultivated into profitable 
friendship or be abandoned to harmless indiffer- 
ence or lasting enmity. He believed with equal 
confidence that an essential forerunner to a new 
era of national progress must be a feeling of con- 
tentment in every section of the Union, and a 
generous belief that the benefits and burdens of 
government would be common to all. Himself a 
conspicuous illustration of what ability and am- 
bition may do under republican institutions, he 
loved his country with a passion of patriotic de- 
votion, and every waking thought was given to 
her advancement. He was an American in all 
his aspirations, and he looked to the destiny and 



-^, OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

influence of the United States with the philosophic 
composure of Jefferson and the demonstrative 
confidence of John Adams. 

The religious element in Garfield's character 
was deep and earnest. In his early youth, he 
espoused the faith of the Disciples, a sect of that 
great Baptist Communion, which, in different 
ecclesiastical establishments, is so numerous and 
so influential throughout all parts of the United 
States. But the broadening tendency of his mind 
and his active spirit of inquiry were early appar- 
ent and carried him beyond the dogmas of sect 
and the restraints of association. In selectino- a 
college in whicli to continue his education he 
rejected Bethany, though presided over by Alex- 
ander Campbell, the greatest preacher of his 
Church. His reasons were characteristic : first 
that Bethany leaned too heavily towards slavery ; 
and, second, that being himself a Disciple and the 
son of Disciple parents, he had little acquaintance 
with people of other beliefs, and he thought it 
would make him more liberal, quoting his own 
words, both in his religious and general views, to 
go into a new circle and be under new influences. 

The liberal tendency which he anticipated as the 
result of wider culture was fully realized. He 
was emancipated from mere sectarian belief, and 
with eager interest pushed his investigations in 
the direction of modern progressive thought. He 
followed with quickening step into the paths of 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. C2'2 

exploration and speculation so fearlessly trodden 
by Darwin, by Huxley, by Tyndall, and by other 
living scientists of the radical and advanced type. 
His own Church, binding its disciples by no for- 
mulated creed, but accepting the Old and New 
Testaments as the word of God, with unbiased 
liberty of private interpretation, favored, if it. did 
not stimulate, the spirit of investigation. Its mem- 
bers profess with sincerity, and profess onlv, to be 
of one mind and of one faith with those who im- 
mediately followed the Master, and who were first 
called Christians at Antioch. 

But however high Garfield reasoned of "fixed 
fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute," he was 
never separated from the Church of the Disciples 
in his affections and in his associations. For him 
It held the ark of the covenant. To him it was 
theorateof Heaven. The world of relifrious belief is 

o o 

full of solecisms and contradictions. A philoso- 
phic observer declares that men by the thousand 
will die In defense of a creed whose doctrines 
they do not comprehend and whose tenets they 
habitually violate. It is equally true that men by 
the thousand will clincr to Church or^ranizations 
with instinctive and undying fidelity when their 
belief in maturer years Is radically different from 
that which inspired them as neophytes. 

But after this range of speculation, and this 
latitude of doubt, Garfield came back always with 
freshness and delight to the simpler Instincts of 



C2A. ^^^ FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

religious faith, which, earhest implanted, longest 
survive. Not many weeks before his assassina- 
tion, walking on the banks of the Potomac with a 
friend, and conversing on those topics of personal 
relifjion concerninof which noble natures have an 
unconquerable reserve, he said that he found the 
Lord's Prayer and the simple petitions learned in 
infancy Infinitely restful to him, not merely in their 
stated repetition, but In their casual and frequent 
recall as he went about the daily duties of life. \ 
Certain texts of Scripture had a very strong hold 
on his memory and his heart. He heard, while in 
Edinburgh some years ago, an eminent Scotch 
preacher who prefaced his sermon with reading 
the eighth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, 
which book had been the subject of careful study 
with Garfield durinor all his relisfious life. He was 
greatly impressed by the elocution of the preacher 
and declared that it had imparted a new and 
deeper meaning to the majestic utterances of 
St. Paul. He referred often In after years to 
that memorable service, and dwelt with exaltation 
of feeling upon the radiant promise and the as- 
sured hope with which the great Apostle of the 
Gentiles was "persuaded that neither death, nor 
life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor 
things present, nor things to come, nor height, 
nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able 
to separate us irom the love of God, which 
is In Christ Jec.is oui Lord." 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



525 



The crowning characteristic of General Gar- 
field's religious opinions, as, indeed, of all his opin- 
ions, was his liberality. In all things he had char- 
ity. Tolerance was of his nature. He respected 
in others the qualities which he possessed himself, 
sincerity of conviction and frankness of expres- 
sion. With him the Inquiry was not so much what 
a man believes, but does he believe it ? The lines 
of his friendship and his confidence encircled men 
of every creed, and men of no creed, and to the 
end of his life, on his ever-lengthening list of 
friends, were to be found the names of a piOus 
Catholic priest and of an honest-minded and gen- 
erous-hearted free-thinker. 

On the morning of Saturday, July 2d, the Presi- 
dent was a contented and happy man — not in an 
ordinary degree, but joyfully, almost boyishly 
happy. On his way to the railroad station, to 
which he drove slowly, in conscious enjoyment of 
the beautiful morning, with an unwonted sense of 
leisure and a keen anticipation of pleasure, his 
talk was all In the grateful and gratulatory vein. 
He felt that after four months of trial his adminis- 
tration was strong in its grasp of affairs, strong In 
popular favor, and destined to grow stronger; 
that grave difficulties confronting him at his In- 
auguration had been safely passed ; that trouble 
lay behind him and not before him ; that he was 
soon to meet the wife whom he loved, now recov- 
ering from an illness which had but lately disqui- 



526 



OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. 



eted and at times almost unnerved him ; tha<- he 
was going to his Alma Mater to renew the ost 
cherished associations of his young manhood, andi 
to exchange greetings with those whose deepen- 
ing interest had followed every step of his upward 
progress from the day he entered upon his college 
course until he had attained the loftiest elevation 
in the gift of his countrymen. 

Surely, if happiness can ever come from the 
honors or triumphs of this world, on that quiet 
July morning James A. Garfield may well have 
been a happy man. No foreboding of evil haunted 
him ; no slightest premonition of danger clouded 
his sky. His terrible fate was upon him in an 
instant. One moment he stood erect, strong, con- 
fident in the years stretching peacefully out before 
him ; the next he lay wounded, bleeding, helpless, 
doomed to weary weeks of torture, to silence, and 
the grave. 

Great in life, he was surpassingly great m death. 
For no cause, in the very frenzy of wantonness 
and wickedness, by the red hand of murder, he 
was thrust from the full tide of this world's interest, 
from its hopes, its aspirations, its victories, into the 
visible presence of death — and he did not quail. 
Not alone for the one short moment in which, 
stunned and dazed, he could give up life, hardly 
aware of its relinquishment, but through days of 
deadly languor, through weeks of agony, that was 
not less agony because silently borne, with clear 



JAMES A. GARFIELD. ^nj 

sight and calm courage, he looked into his open 
grave. What blight and ruin met his anguished 
eyes, whose lips may tell ? — what brilliant, broken 
plans; what baffled, high ambitions ; what sunder- 
ing of strong, warm, manhood's friendships; what 
bitter rending of sweet household ties ! Behind 
him a proud, expectant nation, a great host of sus- 
taining friends, a cherished and happy mother, 
wearing the full, rich. honors of her early toil and 
tears ; the wife of his youth, whose whole life lay 
in his ; the little boys not yet emerged from 
childhood's days of frolic; the fair young daughter ; 
the sturdy sons just springing into closest com- 
panionship, claiming every day and every day 
rewarding a father's love and care ; and in his 
heart the eager, rejoicing power to meet all 
demands. Before him, desolation and great dark- 
ness ! And his soul was not shaken. His coun- 
trymen were thrilled with instant, profound, and 
universal sympathy. Masterful in his mortal 
weakness, he became the centre of a nation's love, 
enshrined in the prayers of a world. But all the 
love and all the sympathy could not share with 
him his suffering. He trod the wine-press alone. 
With unfaltering front he faced death. With 
unfailing tenderness he took leave of life. Above 
the demoniac hiss of the assassin's bullet he heard 
the voice of God. With simple resignaUon he 
bowed to the Divine decree. 

As the end drew near, his early craving for die 



528 



CUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. 



sea returned. The stately mansion of powei »ad^ 
been to him the wearisome hospital of pain, and 
he begged to be taken from its prison walls, from 
its oppressive, stifling air, from its homelessness 
and its hopelessness. Gently, silently, the love of 
a great people bore the pale sufferer to the longed- 
for healing of the sea, to live or to die, as God 
should will, within sight of its heaving billows, 
within sound of its manifold voices. With wan, 
fevered face tenderly lifted to the cooling breeze, 
he looked out wistfully upon the ocean's changing 
wonders ; on its far sails, whitening in the morn- 
ing light ; on its restless waves, rolling shoreward 
to break and die beneath the noonday sun ; on the 
red clouds of eveniufj, archincj low in the horizon ; 
on the serene and shining pathway of the stars. 
Let us think that his dying eyes read a mystic mean- 
ing which only the rapt and parting soul may know. 
Let us believe that in the silence of the receding 
world he heard the great waves breaking on a 
farther shore, and felt already upon his wasted 
brow the breath of the eternal morning. 

After extended and most impressive funeral 
obsequies, President Garfield's mortal remains 
were laid to rest in Lake View Cemetery in the 
fair City of Cleveland, Ohio, on Monday, Sep- 
tember 26th, 1 88 1, and thus a new shrine was 
reared to which the patriotic hearts of America 
will never cease to turn with profound interest. 



CHESTER A. ARTHUR. ^jQ 



CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 

^ ff "^HE exodus from foreign lands to this conn- 
I try has at all times since the early years 
-*- of the present century been remarkable 
for its steadiness — though varying during the de- 
cades. A home in freedom and a chance for a 
fortune in climes where centuries have not bound 
with iron every man's position is always an incen- 
tive to brave spirits. 

Among those who took the tide in its flow, at 
the beginning of the twenties, was a young Pro- 
testant Irishman from Ballymena, County Antrim, 
who bore the name of William Arthur. He was 
eighteen years of age, a graduate of Belfast Col- 
lege, and thoroughly imbued with the intention of 
becoming a Baptist clergyman. In this he perse- 
vered, was admitted to the ministry, took a degree 
of D.D., and followed a career of great usefulness, 
which did not terminate until he died, at Newton- 
ville, near Albany, October 27th, 1875. He was 
in many respects a remarkable man. He acquired 
a wide fame in his chosen career, and entered suc- 
cessfully the great compedtion of authors. He 
published a work on Family Names that is to- 
day regarded as one of the curiosities of English 
erudite literature. 

He married, not long after entering the minis- 
try, an American, Malvina Stone, who bore him 



r-O OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. 

a family of two sons and five daughters. Of 
these, Chester Allan, the subject of this sket , 
was born at Fairfield, Franklin County, Vermont, 
October 5th, 1830. From his home studies he 
went to a wider field of instruction in the insti- 
tutions of Schenectady, in the grammar school of 
which place he was prepared for entering Union 
College. This he did at the age of fifteen (1845), 
and took successfully the regular course, excelling 
in all his studies and graduating very high in the 
class of 184S. 

On o^raduatincj he entered the law school at Ball- 
ston Springs. By rigid economj^and hard work, he 
had managed to save five hundred dollars, and with 
this in his pocket he went to New York, and entered 
the law office of Erastus D. Culver, afterward minis- 
ter to one of the South American States and a judge 
of the Civil Court of Brooklyn. Soon after entering 
Judge Culver's office, he was—in 1852 — admitted 
to the bar, and formed the firm of Culver, Partsen 
& Arthur, which was dissolved in 1837. No sooner 
had he won his title to appear in the courts, than 
he formed a partnership with an old friend, Henry 
D. Gardner, with an intention of practicing in the 
West, and for three months these young gentle- 
men roamed through the Western States in search 
of a place to locate. In the end, not satisfied, they 
returned to New York and began practice. 

The law career of Mr. Arthur includes some 
notable cases. One of his first cases was the cele- 



CHESTER A. ARTHUR. c^t 

brated Lemmon suit. In 1S52, Jonathan and Juliet 
Lemnion, Virginia slaveholders, intending to emi- 
grate to Texas, went to New York to await the 
sailinor of a steamer, brino^inof eio^ht slaves with 

O '000 

them, A writ of habeas corpus was obtained from 
Judge Paine to test the question whether the 
provisions of the Fugitive Slave Law were in force 
in that State. Judge Paine rendered a decision 
holding that they were not, and ordering the Lem- 
mon slaves to be liberated. Henry L. Clinton 
was one of the counsel for the slaveholders. A 
howl of rage went up from the South, and the 
Virginia Legislature authorized the Attorney- 
General of that State to assist in taking an appeal. 
William M. Evarts and Chester A. Arthur were 
employed to represent the people, and they won 
their case, which then went to the Supreme Court 
of the United States. Charles O'Conor here 
espoused the cause of the slaveholders, but he, 
too, was beaten by Messrs. Evarts and Arthur, 
and a long step was thus taken toward the 
emancipation of the black race. 

Mr. Arthur always took an interest in politics 
and the political surroundings of his day. His 
political life began at the age of fourteen, as a 
champion of the Whig party. He shared, too, in 
the turbulence of political life at that period, and 
it is related of him during the Polk-Clay canvass 
that, while he and some of his companions were 
raising an ash pole in honor of Henry Clay, some 



r-,2 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS, 

Democratic boys attacked the party of Whigs, 
and young Arthur, who was the recognized leader 
of the party, ordered a charge, and, taking the 
front ranks himself, drove the young Democrats 
from the field with broken heads and subdued 
spirits. He was a delegate to the Saratoga Con- 
vention that founded the Republican party in New 
York State. He was active in local politics, and 
he gradually became one of the leaders. He 
nominated, and by his efforts elected, the Hon. 
Thomas Murphy a State Senator. When the 
latter resigned the Collectorship of the Port, in 
November, 1871, Arthur was appointed by Presi- 
dent Grant to fill the vacancy. 

He was nominated for the Vice-Presidency at 
Chicago on the evening of Tuesday, June loth. 
He was heartily indorsed by the popular and 
electoral vote, and on the death of President 
Garfield, September 19th, 1881, he assumed the 
Presidential chair. His Administration has been 
an uneventful one, attended with general peace 
and prosperity. 




PRESIDENT AKTHUK, 



THE 

Citizen's Handbook 



Valuable Facts for Campaign Work. 



"In order to have any success in life, or any worthy 
success, you must resolve to carry into your work a full- 
ness of Knowledge — not merely a Sufficiency, but more 
than a Sufficiency." 

James A. G irfiehL 



PRESIDENTIAL CONTESTS. c-e 



BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE PRESIDENTIAL 
CONTESTS. 

Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, John 
Quincy Adams, and Jackson were chosen to the Presidency 
without the machinery of either State or National Conven- 
tions for their nomination. 

Washington was chosen by common consent and demand, 
receiving the unanimous electoral vote, sixty-nine, ten States 
only voting. New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island 
not having adopted the Constitution or framed election laws, 
and four qualified delegates being absent. At his second 
election he received all the votes but three, viz.: one hundred 
and thirty-two out of one hundred and thirty-five, fifteen 
States voting. In 17S9, eleven other persons were voted for 
on the same ballots with Washington, he who received the next 
highest vote to be the Vice-President, as was the rule until 
1804. John Adams was thus chosen by thirty-four votes over 
the following competitors: John Jay, R. H. Harrison, John 
Rutledge, John Hancock, George Clinton, Samuel Hunt- 
ingdon, John Milton, James Armstrong, Benjamin Lincoln, 
and Edward Telfair. In 1792, John Adams was again chosen 
Vice-President, by seventy-seven out of one hundred and 
thirty-two votes, over George Clinton, Thomas Jefferson, and 
Aaron Burr. Adams represented the Federalist or Adminis- 
tration party of the day, the opposition being then known 
as the Republican party. 

Adams, having twice held the Vice-Presidency, was thought 
to have a claim on the higher position, and in 1796, sixteen 
States voting, he received seventy- one electoral votes, Jeffer- 
son receiving sixty-eight, and becoming Vice-President over 
Thomas Pinckney, Aaron Burr, Samuel Adams, Oliver Ells- 
worth, George Clinton, John Jay, James Iredell, George 
Washington, John Henry, S. Johnson, and Charles C. Pimk- 
ney, for each of whom from one to fifty-nine electoral vo.es 



53^ 



PRESIDENTIAL CONTESTS. 



were cast. The successful candidates represented the two 
parties of the da}'. In 1800, the parties in Congress each 
held a caucus and each nominated its own candidates. 

Jefferson was chosen President in iSoo, on the thirty- 
sixth ballot of the House of Representatives, he and Aaron 
Burr having a tie vote of seventy-three in the Electoral Col- 
lege, sixteen States voting. Burr then became Vice-President 
over John Adams, Charles C. Pinckney, and John Jay, who 
represented the Federalists. In 1803, the Constitution was 
amended prescribing the present method of choosing the 
nation's chief officers. After this for a long period the Re- 
publican party and its successor, the Democratic party, had 
things as they pleased. In 1804, Jefferson was re-elected 
over Charley C. PincJ^ney by one hundred and sixty-two 
votes to fourteen, George Clinton becoming Vice-President 
over Rufusi King. Thi^ w^s a result of the Congressional 
caucus. 3eventger\ Spates yoteci. 

Madison, the nominee of the Rep.u|Dlican caucus, received 
onehundred and twenty-two electoral votes in 1808, seventeen 
Statesvoting, his opponent, Charles C. Pinckney, receiving but 
fourteen, and George Clinton, another candidate, receiving 
none. Clinton received onehundred and thirteen votes for the 
Vice-Presidency, however, and was chosen over Rufus King, 
John Langdon, James Madison, and James Monroe. 

In 1812, Madison received one hundred and twenty-eight 
electoral votes out of two hundred and eighteen, eighteen 
States voting, l)e Witt Clinton receiving eighty-nine votes. 
Elbridge Gerry was chosen to the second place by one hun- 
dred and thirty-one votes, Jared IngersoU receiving eighty-six. 

Monroe was twice lifted into power by the caucus, receiv- 
ing one hundred and eighty-three votes to thirty-four for 
Rufus King, in 1816, and two hundred and thirty-one to one 
only for John Quincy Adams, in 1820, nineteen States voting 
in the first election and twenty-four in the second. D. D. 
Tompkins received one hundred and eighty-three votes for 



PRESIDENTIAL CONTESTS 



537 



Vice-President in iSi6, and two hundred and eighteen in 
1820, his competitors in the first race being John E. Howard, 
James Ross, John Marshall, and Robert G. Harper, and in 
the second Richard Stockton, Daniel Rodney, Robert G. Har- 
per, and Richard Rush. At the end of Monroe's term parties 
began to break up and new combinations to form under lead 
of the State Legislatures, several of which brought out their 
favorite sons. 

John Quincy Adams was the Coalition nominee of Massa- 
chusetts 111 1824. Jackson was put forward by Tennessee, as 
were William H. Crawford and Henry Clay by their respective 
States; twenty-four States voted in this contest, having two lum- 
dred and sixty-one electoral votes, of which Jackson received 
ninety-nine, and Adams eighty-four, the remainder being 
divided among the other two candidates. No choice being 
made, the House of Representatives settled the contest, giving 
Adams thirteen States, Jackson seven States, and Crawford 
four States. Jackson's popular vote was one hundred and 
fift) -five thousand eight hundred and seventy-two; that cf 
Adams, one hundred and five thousand three hundred and 
twenty-one, while Crawford and Clay together jiolled ninety 
thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine. A tempest of ill-feel- 
ing was begotten by this decision. John C. Calhoun was chosen 
Vice-President, however, receiving one hundred and eighty- 
two votes, his opponents being Nathan Sanford, Nathaniel 
Macon, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, and Henry Clay. 

Jackson was so enraged by his defeat that he left the Senate 
and threw all his tremendous energy into the campaign of 
1828, he being the leader of the newly formed Democratic 
party. Twenty-four States voted, with two hundred and 
sixty one electoral votes, of which Jackson secured one hun- 
dred and seventy-eight, to eighty-three for Adams, and a 
popular vote of six hundred and forty-seven thousand twq 
hundred and thirty-one, to five hundred and njne thousancj 
and ninety-seven for Adams. Calhoun again became Vice- 
President by one hundred and seventy-one votes, RichauU 



538 PRESIDENTIAL CONTESTS. 

Rush and William Smith being his vanquished rivals. In 
1832, Jackson again swept the board, receiving two hundred 
and nineteen electoral votes and six hundred and eighty-seven 
thousand two hundred and thirty-one popular votes, Henry 
Clay, the National Republican candidate, receiving forty-nine 
electoral votes, and five hundred and thirty thousand one 
hundred and eighty-nine popular votes. John Floyd and 
William Wirt received some thirty-three thousand votes from 
the people and eighteen from the electors. Martin Van 
Buren became Vice-President in Jackson's second term, re- 
ceiving one hundred and eighty-nine votes, his competitors 
being John Sergeant, Henry Lee, Amos Ellmaker, and 
William Wilkins. 

The Convention system was born under Jackson's Adminis- 
tration. Its object was to prevent defeat by scattered votes 
in the same party The anti-Masonic party held the first 
gathering of the sort, William Wirt being its nominee. The 
National Republicans followed in 1831, the Democrats in 
1832. This machinery bore its first fruits in Jackson's second 
Presidential campaign. The Whig party made its first ap- 
pearance in 1836, but its counsels were divided and it lost. 

Van Buren was nominated by the Democrats, and in 1836, 
Iwenty-six States voting, he received one hundred and seventy - 
electoral votes, four Whig candidates, William H. Harrison, 
Hugh L. White, Daniel Webster, and W. P. Mangum divid- 
ing among themselves eleven electoral votes. Van Buren 's 
popular vote was seven hundred and sixty-one thousand five 
hundred and forty-nine; that of all others, seven hundred 
and thirty-six thousand six hundred and fifty-six. R. M. 
Johnson, who received one hundred and seventy electoral 
votes for Vice-President, not receiving a majority of all, was 
plectef^ by the Senate. His competitors were Francis 
granger, John Tyler, and William Smith. 

Harrison, in 1840, received a popular vote of one million 
two hundred and seventy-five thousand and seventeen, and an 
electoral vote of two hundred and thirty-four, as did John 



PRESIDENTIAL CONTESTS. 539 

Tyler, his associate on the Whig ticket. He was opposed by- 
Van Buren, who polled one million one hundred and twenty- 
eight thousand seven hundred and two popular votes, and 
sixty of the electoral college, and by James G. Birney, of the 
Liberty or Abolition party, who polled seven thousand and 
fifty-nine votes. R. M. Johnson, L. W. Tazewell, and James 
K. Polk were candidates for the Vice-Presidency, receiving in 
all sixty electoral votes. Twenty-six States voted. Harrison's 
election was the first Whig success, and the campaign preced- 
ing it has been aptly termed " the great national frolic." 

Polk was chosen President in 1844 over Birney, the Abo- 
litionist, and Clay, the Whig, receiving a popular vote of 
one million three hundred and thirty-seven thousand two 
hundred and forty-three, and an electoral vote of one hundred 
and seventy, to Clay's one million two hundred and ninety- 
nine thousand and sixty-eight popular and one hundred and 
five electoral, Birney's vote being sixty-two thousand three 
hundred popular and none electoral. For Vice-President 
George M. Dallas received the same electoral vote as Polk, 
and Theodore Frelinghuysen the same as Clay. 

Taylor was chosen by the Whigs in 1848, Clay and Web- 
ster being abandoned. He and his associate, Millard Fill- 
more, received each one hundred and sixty-three electoral 
votes and a popular vote of one million three hundred and 
sixty thousand one hundred and one. Lewis Cass, the Demo- 
cratic nominee, and Wm. O. Butler, his associate, were re- 
garded as a weak combination, but they polled one million 
two hundred and twenty thousand five hundred and forty-four 
votes, with one hundred and twenty-seven electors. Van 
Buren ran on the Free Soil ticket with Charles Francis Adams, 
and received two hundred and ninety-one thousand two 
hundred and sixty-three votes, thirty States voting. Taylor 
died, and Fillmore quarreled with his party, thus impairing 
its strength sadly. 

Pierce rode into power over the fragments of the Whig 
party, he and his associate, William R. King, receiving two 



540 



PRESIDENTIAL CONTESTS. 



hundred and fifty-four electoral and one million six hundred 
and one thousand four hundred and seventy-four popular 
votes. Winfield Scott and William A. Graham, the Whig 
nominees, received forty-two electoral and one million three 
hundred and eighty-six thousand five hundred and seventy- 
eight popular votes, John P. Hale and George W. Julian, 
Free Democrats, polling one hundred and fifty-six thousand 
one hundred and forty-nine suffrages. This contest ended 
the Whig party. Thirty-one States voted. 

Buchanan" was chosen in 1S56 by one hundred and sev- 
enty-four electoral votes, John C. Breckenridge being his 
associate, they receiving a popular vote of one million eight 
hundred and thirty-eight thousand one hundred and sixty- 
nine, John C. Fremont and Wm. L. Dayton, nominees of the 
newly-formed Republican party, receiving one hundred and 
fourteen electoral and one million three hundred and forty- 
one thousand two hundred and sixty-four popular votes, 
while Millard Fillmore and A. J. Donelson, of the American 
party, had eight electoral and eight hundred and seventy-four 
thousand five hundred and thirty-four popular votes. This 
was a most bitter campaign, saturated with all the issues of 
slavery, disunion, and border ruffianism. 

Lincoln was elected in i860 by a popular vote of one 
million eight hundred and sixty-six thousand three hundred 
and fifty-two, and an electoral vote of one hundred and 
eighty, Hannibal Hamlin being his associate. This Avas the 
first victory for the Republicans. Democrats, Constitutional 
Unionists, and Independent Democrats voted respectively 
for Breckenridge and Lane, Bell and Everett, and Douglas 
and Johnson, who received electoral votes as follows: 
Breckenridge, seventy-two; Bell, thirty-nine; Douglas, 
twelve ; and popular votes : Breckenridge, eight hundred 
and forty-five thousand seven hundred and sixty-three; Bell, 
five hundred and eighty-nine thousand five hundred and 
eighty-one; and Douglas, one million three hundred and 
seventy-five thousand one hundred and fifty-seven. Thirty- 



PRESIDENTIAL CONTESTS. 



541 



three States engaged in this contest, of which Lincohi carried 
seventeen, Breclcenridge eleven, Bell three, and Douglas 
two. Lincoln's second election, Andrew Johnson being his 
associate, was by two hundred and twelve electoral and two 
million two hundred and sixteen thousand andsixty-seven pop- 
ular votes, George B. McClellan and G. H. Pendleton receiv- 
ing twenty-one electoral and one million eight hundred and 
eight thousand seven hundred and twenty-five popular votes. 
Eleven States and eighty-one electors were not represented 
in this election. Of twenty-five voting States Lincoln carried 
all but three. 

Grant was chosen in 1872 over Horatio Seymour by two 
hundred and fourteen votes of the Electoral College to eighty, 
twenty-three electors, three States, not represented. Schuyler 
Colfax and Frank P Blair, Jr., were the respective Vice-Pres- 
idential nominees. The popular vote was three million fifteen 
thousand and seventy-one, for Grant, to two million seven 
hundred and nine thousand six hundred and thirteen for Sey- 
mour. At the election of 1872 Grant had a long line of com- 
petitors, but he polled three million five hundred and ninety- 
seven thousand and seventy popular votes, and two hundred 
and eighty-six electoral out of a possible three hundred and 
sixty-six. All the States voted. His competitors on various 
tickets were Horace Greeley, Charles O' Conor, James Black, 
Thos. A. Hendricks, Charles J. Jenkins, and David Davis. 
Henry Wilson was chosen Vice-President, over B. Gratz Brown, 
Geo. W. Julian, A. H. Colquitt, John M. Palmer, T. E. Bram- 
lette, W. S. Groesbeck, Willis B. Machen, and N. P. Banks. 

Hayes was elected, with his associate, Wm. A. Wheeler, in 
a scattering contest. His popular vote was four million thirty- 
three thousand nine hundred and fifty. Samuel J. Tilden, 
(Democrat) received four million two hundred and eighty- 
four thousand eight hundred and eighty-five votes. Peter 
Cooper, (Greenback) eighty-one thousand seven hundred and 
forty. Green Clay Smith (Prohibition), nine thousand five 
hundred and twenty-two, and two thousand six hundred and 



542 



PRESIDENTIAL CONTESTS. 



thirty-six were scattering. T. A. Hendricks was Mr. Tilden's 
associate. The disputed vote was settled by an Electoral Com- 
mission which awarded Hayes one hundred and eighty-five 
electoral votes and Tilden one hundred and eighty-four. 

Garfield received, in 1880, a popular vote of four million 
four hundred and forty-nine thousand and fifty-three, and an 
electoral vote of two hundred and fourteen, together with 
Chester A. Arthur, his associate. Winfield S. Hancock and 
William H. English received four million four hundred and 
forty-two thousand and thirty-five popular, and one hundred 
and fifty-five electoral votes. The Greenback candidates, 
James B. Weaver and B. J. Chambers, received three hundred 
and seven thousand three hundred and six votes, and twelve 
thousand five hundred and seventy-six were reported as scat- 
tering. Thus the Re[)ublicans held the Presidency from Lin- 
coln's election in i860. 



rRESIDENTIAL ELECTIOXS. 54^ 



TABLES or PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS. 



SUMMARY OF POPULAR AND ELECTORAL VOTES FOR PRESI- 
DENT AND VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 1789- 
1876. 



,', 




6 
^5 


c5 

0) 




Political 
Party. 


* Presidents. i 


* Vice-Presidents. 




Candidates. 


Vote. | 


Candidates. 


6 


1% 

©••5 
ei 




Popular. 


2 




i 

3 


1789 +ifi 


73 

135 
138 

138 




George Washington 




69 








15 
16 

16 










34 






Jolin J;iy 










n 






R. H. Harrison 










n 






John Rutledge 










6 










4 






George Clinton. 










» 






Samuel Huntingdon 
John Milton 










<f. 














?. 
















1 






Benjamin Lincoln. . 










1 




Federalist. . 
Federalist.. 
Republican 


Edward Telfair . 










1 










4 

132 




4 


1792 


George Washington 
















77 














50 




Thomas Jeff .Tson.. 










4 
















1 




Federalist. . 
Republican 
Federalist.. 
Republican 








3 

71 




3 


1796 












Tliomas Jefferson.. 








68 














30 














15 






Oliver Ellsworth .. 










11 






George Clinton 











7 

















5 
















3 




George Washington 










2 














2 














2 




Republican 
Republican 
Federalist.. 
Federalist.. 


Charles C. Pinckney 










1 


1800 






t73 














;73 














65 




Charles C.Pinckney 










04 












1 










' 




__ 



• Previous to the election of ISM each elector voted for two canddates for President ; the 
one receiving the hishest number of votes, if a majority, was declared elected President, 
and the next liighest Vice-President. 

t Three States out of thirteen did not vote, viz. : New York, which had not passed an elec- 
toral law ; and North Carolina and Rhode Island, which had not adopted the Constitution. 

t There having been a tie vote, the choice devolved upon the House of Representatives, 
A choice was made on the Sbth ballot, which was as foilows : Jefrera<)ii-Ueorgia, Kentuclcy. 
Maryland, New Jersey. New York, North Carolina. Pennsylvania. Tennessee. Vermont and 
VSrginia-^10 States ; Burr-Connecticut, Massachusetts. New HaaapBhirc, and Rhod« Wand 
•~4 States ; Blank— Dslaware and South Caroliua— 2 States. 



544 



rorCLAR AXD ELECTORAL J'OTES. 



i 


x 


> 


PouncAL 
Pabty. 


Presidents. ] 


Vice-Presidents. 


^ ■§ • 


Cakdidates. 


VOTK. 


Candidates. 






BO 
O 

d 


o 
o 

Er- 


15 
2 

12 
5 


a 
Popular. 2 

o 




1604, 17 


ne Republican 
Federalist.. 

176 Republican 


Thomas Jefferson. . 
Charles C. Pinckney 

James Madison. .. 
Charles C. Pinckney 




162 
14 

122 

47 
6 


Gtxirge Clinton.. 
jRufus King 

George Clinton. . 

Rufus King 

John Laugdon.. 
James Madison. 
James Monroe.. 


ifi?i 


180S 17 





14 
IIS 




18 
19 

24 

24 

24 
24 

26 


218 
221 

235 

261 

261 

288 

294 


Federalist. . 




47 












^ 














H 




Republican. 
Federalist.. 


Vacancy 






1 

128 
69 

1 

188 
34 


1 


1812 


James Madison 

DeWitt Clinton 


11 
7 




Elhridce Gcrrv. . 
Jared Ingersoll. . 

D. D. Tompkins. 
John E. Howard 

James Ross 

.lohn Marshall.. 
Robt.G. Harper. 


13T 






m 






1 


IMG 


Republican. 
Federalist. . 


.lames Monroe 

Rufus King 


16 
3 




1M 






'?A 






5 














4 














f» 




Republican 
Opposition. 


Vacancies 






4 

231 

1 


4 


i«?n 


James Monroe 

John Q. Adams 


24 




D. D. Tompkins. 
Rich. Stockton.. 
Daniel Rodney. 
Kobt. G. Harper 
Richard Rush... 

John C. Calhoun 
Nathan Sanford. 
Nathaniel JIactn 
Andrew Jackson 
M. Van Buren.. 
Henry Clay 


f'-S 






H 










4 














r 














1 


1824 


Republican. 
Coalition.. 
Republican. 
Republican. 


Vacancies. ...... 

Andrew Jackson. . . 

John Q. Adams 

Wm. H. Crawford.. 
Henry Clay 


10 
8 
3 
3 


155,872 
105,321 
44,282 
40.587 


8 

♦00 
84 
41 
37 


3 

l.'=3 

24 
13 

q 














2 




Democratic 
Nat. Repub. 


Vacancy 








1 


1828 


[Andrew Jackson. . . 
John Q. Adams . . . 


15 
9 


647,231 
609,097 


178 
83 


John C. Calhoun 
Richard Rush.. 
1 William Smith.. 

M. Van Buren... 
John Sergeant. . . 

Henry Lee 

Amos EllmaUer. 
WiUiam Wilkins 

R. M. Johneont. 
Francis Granger. 

John Tyler 

William Smith.. 


171 

t>3 

7 


1832 


Democratic 
Nat. Repub. 


Andrew Jackson... 

Henry Clay 

•John Flovd 1 

William Wirt.... ) 


1 
1 


687,502 
630,189 

33,108 


219 
19 
11 


1S9 
49 
11 




Anti-Mason 


7 

30 


1636 


Democratic. 

Whig 

Whis; 

Whig 

Whig 


Vacancies 

Martin Van Buren. 
Wm. H. Harrison" 
Husrh L. White.. 
Dauiel Webster.. 
W. P. Mantmm... 


15 
7 
2 

1 
1 


761,549 
736,656 


2 

170 
73 
26 
14 
11 


3 

147 
77 
47 
23 






i 





• No choice having been made by the Electoral College, the choice devolved upon tha 
House of Kepresentatives. A choice was made on the first liallol, which was as follows: 
Adams— Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana. Ma.ne, Maryland, Massachusetts. Mis- 
souri. New Hampshire, New York, GJiio, Rhode Island, and Vermont— 13 States • Jackson — 
Alabama, Indi.iHa, Mississippi, New .Jersey, Pennsylvania. South Carolina, and Tenaess:!C — 
7 States ; Cniwford— Delaware, Georgiii, North Carolina, and Virginia — 4 States. 

t No candid.ite having received a majority of the votes of the Electoral College, the t-en- 
•te tlMted R. M, JohQMn Vice-Pre«ltleot, who received 83 votM ; FrwasQrtuieerr«cciv«d U> 



rorULAR AXD ELECTORAL VOTES. 



545 



1840 26 



1841 26 



1&18 30 



1852 



185G 



1834 'SG 



18S8 tsr 



1872 



1876 



18801 



294 



275 



290 



296 



296 



303 



314 



poltticax 
Party. 



Whig 

Democratic 
Liberty 



PUEHIDBN 18. 



Candidates. 



Wm. H. narrison.. 
Martin Van Buren. 
James G. Birney... 



Democratic Jamea K. Polk. . . 

Whig Eenry Clay 

Liberty James G. Birney. 



Whig 

Democratic 
Free Soil... 

Democratic 

Whig 

Free Dem.. 

Democratic 
Republican. 
American . . 

Republican. 
Democnitic. 
Cons. Union 
Ind. Dem. . . 

Republican. 
Democratic 



317| Republican. 
Democratic. 



366 



Republican. 
Dem. &Lib. 
Democratic. 
Temp'rance 



Zachary Taylor 

Lewif Cass 

Martin Van Buren. 



Franklin Pierce. 
Wiiilield Scott.. 
John P. Hale 



James Buchanan. . 
John C. Fremont. 
Millard Fillmore.. 

Abraham Lincoln. 
J. C. Breckinridge. 

John Bell 

S. A. Dou^rlas 



Abraham Lincoln. 

Geo. B. McClellaa. 

Vacancies! 



LHysses S. Grant. . 

HoratiO beymour , 

Vacancies 



Ulysses S. Grant... 

Horace Greeley 

Charles O'Cunor. . . 

James Black 

Thos. A. Hendricks 
B. Gratz Brown . . . 
Charles J Jenkins 
David Davis 



% Not Counted. 



369 Republican. Rutherford B.Hayee 21 
Democratic. Samuel J. Tildcn... 1 

Greenback. .iPeterCooper 

Prohibition Green Clay Smith. 
Scattering 

38 369 RepuDflcan.. Jamos A. Garfield. ..'19 
] Democratic. iWinfloliI S.Haucockiia 
Greenback.. James B. Weaver. ..|... 
Scattering 



Pop'ilar. 



1,275,017 

1,128,702 

7,059 



Vioe-Prksidbntb 



Candidates. 



234 John Tyler 234 

60 R. M. Johnson . . 43 



1,337,243 170 

l,2;)9.(>(i8 105 

62,300 ... 



L. W. Tazewell. 
James K. Polk.. 



Geo. M. Dallas.. 170 
T. Frelinghuyseni loS 



l,3fA101 1C3 Millard FillmoreiieS 

l,-.ivi(),:,44 l-.;7i Wm. O. Butlcr..jl2T 

:i'Jl,2(J3| . . . LChas. F. Adams. 

],6<)1,474 254 Wm. R. King. .. 254 

1,380.578 42 Wm. A. Graham 42 

156,149 ... Geo. W.Julian.. 

1.838.109 174 'j. C. Breckinr'ge 174 

1,341.204 114;:Wm. L. Dayton. 114 

871,534 8 JA. J. Donelson.. 8 

1,%0,.3,52 180' Hannibal Hamlin 180 

" ' 78 

39 

IS 



84.).7(j:i 72 Joseph Lane, 

."iH.t.aSl! 89 Edward Everett. 

1,370,157 12,:U. V. Johnson., 



2,216,007 212 'Andrew Johnson 21* 
1,808.725 21;;g. H.Pendleton. i 21 
81|| 81 



214 Schnyler Colfas l?14 
80 F. P. Blair, Jr...j 80 

ail 23 



3,015,071 
2,709,613 



3,r>97,070'28U: Henry Wilson... 'S8« 



2,831,079 
29,-408 
6,608 



B. Gratz Brown 
Geo. W. Julian. 
. ..i A. H. Colquitt... 
42 John M. Palmer. 
18 iT. E. Bramlctte. 
2 JW. S. Groei^beok 
lliWillisB.Machen 
. ..I N. P. Banks 

17: 



4,033,9.'jO ia5 Wm. A. Wheeler 185 
4,284,885 184 T. A. llendrickii 184 



81,740 
9.522 
2,636, 



4,449.068 214' aieeter A. Arthurian 
4,442,0:15155 iWm. H. EngUah. 165 

307.a06 B. J. Chambers...... 

12,!>70 L... 



* Elevea States did not vote, viz.: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mid 
eiasippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. 

t Tliree States did not vote, viz.: Mississippi, Texas, ami Virginia. 

X Three electoral votes of Georgia cast for Horace Greeloy. and the votes ef Arlcanaas, ft 
and Louisiana, 8, cast for U. S. Grant, were rejected. If all had heen included In ttie count 

the eiec^nu vote would bave beea 900 for U. S. Urwt, cuiti $$ for opposlni; caadlutbi. 



54'5 



NATIONAL ELECTIONS. 
THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 



The Presidential election will take place on Tuesday, 
November 4th, 1S84. The Constitution prescribes that each 
State shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof 
may direct, a number of electors equal to the whole number 
of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be 
entitled in Congress. For the election this year the electors 
by States will be as follows : 

States. Electoral States. Electoral 

Vote. Vute. 

Alabama 10 Missouri 16 

Arkansas 7 Nebraska 5 

California 8 Nevada 3 

Colorado 3 New Hampshire 4 

Connecticut 6 New Jersey g 

Delaware 3 New York. 36 

Florida 4 North Carolina II 

Georjijia 12 Ohio 23 

Illinois 22 Oregon 3 

Indiana 15 Pennsylvania... . 30 

Iowa 13 Rhode Island... 4 

Kansas 9 South Carolina 9 

Kentucky 13 Tennessee 12 

Louisiana 8 Texas 13 

Maine 6 Vermont 4 

Maryland 8 Virginia 12 

Massachusetts 14 We^t Virginia , 6 

Michigan 13 Wisconsin 11 

Minnesota 7 

Mississippi 9I Total 401 

Necessary to a choice, 201. 

No Senator or Representative, or person holding an ofifice of 
profit or trust under the United States, shall be an elector. 
In all the States, the laws thereof direct that the people shall 
choose the electors. The Constitution declares that the dav 
when electors are chosen shall be the same throughout the 
United States. The electors shall meet in their respective 
States on the first Wednesday in December, and vote by ballot 
for President and Vice-President, one of whom at least shall 
not be an inhabitant of the same State as themselves. 



QUALIFICATIONS FOR VOTERS. 



547 



QUALIFICATIONS FOR VOTERS. 



States. 



Alabama .... 

Arkansas 

California . . 

Colorado 

Connecticut. 
Delaware .... 



Requirement 

as to 
Citizenship. 



Florida 21 

Georgia 

Illinois 

Indiana 

Iowa 

Kansas 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maine.. 

Maryland 

Massachusetts. 

Michigan 

Minnesota 

Mississippi. ... 

Missouri 

Nebraska 

Nevada 

N. Hampshire 
New Jersey... 

New York 

N. Carolina... 

Ohio 

Oregon 

Pennsylvania . 
Rhode Island 
S. Carolina.... 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Vermont 

Virginia 

W.Virginia... 
Wisconsin 



Citizens or declared intention. 

Citizens or declared intention. 

Actual citizens 

!i Citizens or declared intention. 

'21 Actual citizens 

'21 Actual County ta.xpayers 

f United States citizens or "1 

\ declared intention j 

Actual citizens . 

Actual citizens 

Citizens or declared intention. 

Actual citizens 

Citizens or declared intention. 

Free white male citizens 

Citizens or declared intention. 

Actual citizens 

Actual citizens 

Citizens 

Citizens or declared intention. 
2ilCitizens or declared intention. 
2 1 Actual citizens 



Citizens or declared intention 
Citizens or declared intention 
Citizens or declared intention, 

Actual citizens 

Actual citizens , 

21 Actual citizens 

21 [Actual citizens 

2 1 Actual citizens 

21 'Citizens or declared intention 

21 Actual citizens 

21 Actual tax-paying citizens 

21 Actual citizens 

21 Actual citizens 



Residence 



6 mo 
I mo 



6 mo 
gods 
6ods 
6ods 



I yr. 3 mo 
I yr. 6mo 
I yr. 9ods 
6mo 
lyr. 
I yr. 

I yr. 

I yr. 

1 yr. 
6 mo 
6 mo 
6 mo 

2 yrs 
I yr. 

3 mo 
lyr. 
I yr. 

3 mo 

4 mo 
6 mo 
I yr.J6ods 

6 mo 

6mo!3ods 
iSmo 



Registration. 



No law. 

Prohibited. 

Required. 

Required. 

Required. 

Not required. 



6 mo' Required. 



I yr. 
6 mo 



6 mo 



I yr.'4mo 
gods 



Citizens or declared intention. 

Actual citizens 

Actual citizens 

Actual citizens 

Citizens or declared intention. 



lyr. 


lyr. 


I yr. 


6 mo 


lyr. 


lyr. 


I yr. 


I yr. 


I yr. 


lyr. 


I yr. 


lyr. 


lyr. 



6ods 
6 mo 
6 mo 



6ods 



No law. 

Required. 

No law. 

Required. 

Req'd in cities 

Not required. 

No law. 

Required. 

Required. 

Required. 

Required. 

Reciuired. 

Required. 

Req'd in cities 

Required. 

Required. 

Required. 

Req'd in cities 

Req'd in cities 

Required. 

Not required. 

Required. 

Required. 

Required. 

Not required. 

Prohibited. 

Required. 

Required. 

Prohibited. 

1 Required. 



Note.— In several States women are permitted to vote on the school questions, sdo 
lion of directors, etc. 



548 



HOMES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Presi- 
dential 
Term. 



I 
2 

3 
4 

5 
6 

7 
8 

9 
lo 
II 

12 

13 
14 

15 

i6 

17 

i8 

19 

20 

21 
22 

23 
24 



Name. 



George Washington.. 
George Washington.. 

John Adams 

Thomas Jefferson 

Tliomas Jefferson 

James Madison 

James Madison 

James Monroe 

lames Monroe 

John Quincy Adams. 

Andrew Jackson 

Andrew Jackson 

Martin Van Buren... 
Wm. n. Harrison.* 

John Tyler 

James K. Polk 

Zachary Taylor* 

Millard Fillmore 

Franklin Pierce 

James Buchanan 

Abraham IJncoln 

Abraham Lincoln *.. 

Andrew Johnson 

Ulysses S. Grant 

Ulysses S. Grant 

Rutherford B. Hayes 
James A. Garfield* . . . 
Chester A. Arthur 



Qualified. 



April 30, 
March 4, 
March 4, 
March 4, 
March 4, 
March 4, 
March 4, 
March 4, 
March 5, 
March 4, 
March 4, 
March 4, 
March 4, 
March 4, 
April 6. 
: March 
I March 
jjuly 
March 
{March ^, 
I March 4, 
March 4, 
! April 15, 
March 4, 
i March 4, 
March 5, 
I March 4, 
[Sept'r 20, 



Born. 



4, 
5, 
9. 
4, 
4. 



1789 

1793 
1797 
1801 
1805 
1809 
1813 
1817 
1821 
1825 
1829 
1833 
1837 
1841 
1841 

1845 
1849 
1850 
1853 
1857 
1861 
1865 
1865 
1869 

1873 

1877 



Feb. 22, 1732 
Oct. 19 1735, 
April 2, 1743 

March 5, 1751 



Died. 



Dec. 14, 
July 4, 
July 4, 



1799 
1826 
1826 



June 28, 1836 



April 28, 1758 July 4, 

July II, 1767 Feb. 23. 

Mar. 15, 1767 June 8, 

Dec. 5, 1782 July 24, 
Feb. 9, 1 773' April 4, 
Mar. 29, l79oljan. 17, 
Nov. 2, 1 795 June 15, 
Nov. 24, 1784 July 9, 
Jan. 7, 1800 
Nov. 23, 1804 Oct. 8 
April 22, 1 79 1 June I, 

Feb. 12, 1809 April 15, 

Dec. 29, 1 80S 

April 27, 1822 

Oct. 4, 1822 

Nov. 19, 1831 Sept. 19, 

Oct. 5, 1830 



1S31 
1848 

145 

1862 
1841 
1862 
1849 
1850 

1869 
1868 

1865 

July 30,1875 



[881 



* Died in office. 



Total number of incumbents, 21. 



HOMES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



Washington. 



Native State. 



Virginia Virginia 



Adams ! Massachusetts. 



Whence Elected. 



Virginia. 



Massachusetts.., 
North Carolina.. 

New York 

Virginia 



North Carolina. 



Massachusetts. 
Virginia. 



Jefferson 

Madison 

Monroe 

Adams, J. Quincy 

Jackson 

Van Buren 

Harrison 

Tyler „ 

Polk 

Tayior Virgini 

Fillmore New York. 

Pierce 'New Hampshire... New H.Tmpshire. 

Buchanan 1 Pennsylvania 1 Pemisylvania. 

Lincoln Kentucky Illinois. 

Johnson North Carolina Tennessee. 

Grant |Ohio 'Illinois. 

Hayes ^ " iOhio. 

Garfield " " 

Arthwr '.'.....'.'. 'New York ^New York. 



Massachusetts. 

Tennessee. 

New York. 

Ohio. 

Virginia. 

Tennessee. 

Louisiana. 

New York. 



VICE- PRESIDENTS. 



549 



VICE-PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Vice- 
Fres. 
Terra. 



Name. 



John Adams 

John Adams 

Thomas Jefferson 

Aaron Burr 

George Clinton . 

George Clinton* 

William II. Crawfordf. 

Elbridge Gerry* 

John Gaillard* 

Daniel D. Tompkins.... 
Daniel D. Tompkins... 

John C.Calhoun 

John C Calhoun J 

Hugh L. Whitef 

Martin Van Buren 

Richard M. Johnson.... 

John Tyler^ 

.Samuel L. Southardf... 
Willie P. Mangumf .... 

George M. Dallas 

Millard Fillmore§ 

William R. Kingf 

William R. King* 

David R. Atchisonf.... 

Jesse D. I5right f 

John C. lireckenridge.. 

Hannibal Hamlin 

\ndrew Johnson^ 

Lafayette S. Fosterf 

Benjamin F. Wadef ... 

Schuyler Colfax 

Henry W' ilson* 

Thomas W. Ferry f 

William A. Wheeler..., 

Chester A. Arthur \ 

David Davis f 

George F. Edmundsf... 



Qualified. 



June 3 
Dec. 2, 
March 4, 
March 4 
March 4, 
March 4, 
April 10 
March 4, 
Nov. 25, 
March 4, 
March 5, 
March 4, 
March 4, 
Dec. 28^ 
March 4, 
March 4, 
March 4, 
April 6 
May 31 
March 4 
March 5 
July II 
March 4 
April 
Dec. 
March 
March 
March 
April 1 
March 



March 4 
March 4 
Nov. 22 
March 5 
March 4 
13 
3 



Oct. . 
March 



7891 
793/ 
797 
801 

8051. 
809 J 
812 

813 

814 

817 

821 

8251 

829/ 

832 

833 

837 

841 

841 

842 

845 

849 

8501 

853 i 

853 

854 

857 

861 

865 

865 

867 

869 

873 

875 

877 

881 



Born. 



1735 

1743 

1756 

1739 
1772 
1744 



1744 

1782 

1773 
1782 
1780 
1790 
1787 
1792 
1792 
1800 

1786 

1807 
1812 
1821 
1809 
1808 
1806 
1800 
1823 
1812 
1827 
1819 
1830 
1815 
1828 



* Died in office, t Acting Vice-President and President pro tern, of the Scnatef 
X Resigned the Vice-Presidency, g Became President. 



CABINETS OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

George Washington: April 30, 1789— March 4, 1797 (two terms). 

Secretary of State: Thomas Jefferson, appointed Sept. 26, 1789 



Edmund Randol]ih, 
Timothy Pickering, 



Jan. 2, 1794 
Dec. 10, 1795 



550 



CABINETS OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



Stcretary of Treasury 


■ Alexander Hamilton, 


appointed Sept. 11, 


1789 


« » 


Oliver Wolcott, 


" 


Feb. 2, 


1795 


War: 


Henry Knox, 


" 


Sept. 12 


1789 


" " 


Timothy Pickering, 


" 


Jan. 2, 


1795 


" " 


James ^IcHenry, 


« 


Jan. 27, 


1796 


Postmaster General: 


Samuel Osgood, 


<< 


Sept. 26, 


1789 


11 <( 


Timothy Pickering, 


" 


Aug. 12, 


1 791 


" « 


Joseph Habersham, 


It 


Feb. 25, 


179s 


Attorney- General: 


Edmund Randolph, 


" 


Sept. 26, 


1789 


" " 


William Bradford, 


" 


Jan. 27, 


1794 


" " 


Charles Lee, 


<< 


Dec. 10, 


1795 


John Adams: March 


4. 1797 — March 4, 180 


I (one term 


). 




Secretary of State : 


Timothy Pickering, 


appointed 


March 4, 


1797 


" " 


John Marshall, 


" 


May 13, 


1800 


" Treasury. 


Oliver Wolcott, 


" 


March 4, 


1797 


" " 


Samuel Dexter, 


" 


Jan. I, 


iSoi 


tVar: 


James Mc Henry, 


" 


March 4, 


1797 


'• " 


Samuel Dexter, 


•' 


May 13, 


iSoo 


« iC 


Rodger Oriswold, 


" 


Feb. 3, 


1801 


Navy: 


Benjamin Stoddart, 


" 


May 21, 


1798 


Postmaster- General: 


Joseph Habersham, 


" 


March 4, 


1797 


Attoi-ney- General: 


Charles Lee, 


" 


March 4, 


1797 


" " 


Theophilus Parsons, 


" 


Feb. 20, 


1801 


Thomas Jefferson: 


Vlarch 4, iSoi — March 


4, 1S09 {U\ 


terms). 




Secretary of State : 


James Madison, 


appointed March 5, 


1801 


" Treasury. 


Albert Gallatin, 


" 


May 14, 


1801 


War: 


Henry Dearborn, 


" 


iSIarch 5, 


1801 


" Nazy: 


Benjamin Stoddert, 


(( 


March 4, 


1801 


I' « 


Robert Smith, 


«' 


July 15. 


1 801 


(( (< 


J. Crowninshield, 


" 


March 3, 


1805 


Postmaster- General : 


Joseph Habersham, 


«' 


March 4, 


I So I 


" " 


Gideon Granger, 


" 


Nov. 28, 


iSoi 


Attorney- General: 


Levi Lincoln, 


" 


March 5, 


1801 


« u 


Robert Smith, 


" 


March 3, 


1S05 


i< « 


John Breckinridge, 


" 


Aug. 7, 


1805 


(( « 


Caesar A. Rodney, 


" 


Jan. 28, 


1807 


James Madison: March 4, 1809 — March 4, i 


Si 7 (two terms). 




Secretary of State : 


Robert Smith, 


appointed 


March 6, 


1809 


" " 


James Monroe, 


" 


April 2, 


iSii 


" Treasury 


• Albert Gallatin, 


" 


March 4, 


1809 


" " 


George W. Campbell, 


" 


Feb. 9, 


1814 


« ti 


Alexander J. Dallas, 


(( 


Oct. 6, 


1S14 


<» <j 


William H. Crawford, 


" 


Oct. 22, 


1S16 


" jr^/v 


William Eustis, 


" 


March 7, 


1809 


" " 


John Armstrong, 


" 


Jan. 13, 


1813 


" " 


James Monroe, 


" 


Sept. 27, 


1814 


« « 


William H. Crawford 


" 


Aug. I, 


1815 


" Nazy: 


Paul Hamilton, 


« 


March 7, 


1809 


" " 


William Jones, 


" 


Jan. t2, 


1S13 


M « 


B. W. Crowninshield, 


" 


Dec. 19, 


1814 



CABINETS OP THE PRESIDENTS. 



55 T 



Postmaster- General : 



Attorney- General: 



Gideon Granger, appointed March 4, iSoxf 

Return J. Meigs, Jr., " March 17, 1814 

Csesar A, Rodney, " March 4, 1809 

William Pinkney, " Dec. 11,1811 

Richard Rush, " Feb. 10, 1814 



James Monroe: March 4, 1S17 — March 4, 18 



Secretary of State: 

" Treasury 

War : 

" N'avy : 



Post)7iasler- General : 
Attorney- General : 



John Quincy Adams, 
William II. Crawford, 
George Graham, 
John C. Calhoun, 
B. W. Crowninshield, 
Smith Thompson, 
Samuel L. Southard, 
Return J. Meigs, Jr., 
John McLean, 
Richard Rush, 
William Wirt, 



25 (two terms). 

appointed March 5, 1817 

" March 5, 181 7 

'' ad interim. 

Oct. 8, 1817 

'' March 4, 1817 

Nov. 9, 1818 

" Sept. 16, 1823 

" March 4, 1817 

•' June 26, 1823 

" March 4, 181 7 

" Nov. 13, 1817 



John Quincy Adams: March 4, 1825 — March 4, 1829 (one term). 
Secretary of State : Henry Clay, appointed March 7, 1835 



" N'avy : 

Postmaster- General 
Attorney- General : 



Treasury: Richard Rush, 
War: James I5arbour, 

" Peter B. Porter, 

Samuel L. Southard, 
John McLean, 
William Wirt, 



Andrkw Jackson 
Secretary of State : 



March 4, 1829 — March 4, 
Martin Van Buren, 
Edward Livingston, 
Louis McLane, 
John Forsyth, 
Samuel D. Ingham, 
Louis McLane, 
William J. Duane, 
Roger B. Taney, 
Levi Woodbury, 
John II. Eaton, 
Lewis Cass, 
John Branch, 
Levi Woodbury, 
Mahlon Dickerson, 
William T. Barry, 
Amos Kendall, 
John M. Berrien, 
Roger B. Taney, 
" " Benjamin F. Butler, 

Martin Van Buren: March 4, 1837— March 
Secretary of State: John Forsyth, 

" Treasury : Levi Woodbury, 

" IVar: Joel R. Poinsett, 



Treasury 



War: 



N^avy . 



Postmaster- General : 
Attorney- General: 



March 7, 1825 
" March 7, 1825 

May 26, 1828 
" March 4, 1825 

" March 4, 1825 

" March 4, 1825 

1837 (two terms). 

appointed March 6, 1829 
" May 24, 1 83 1 

" May 29, 1S33 

" June 27, 1S34 

" March 6, 1829 

" Aug. 2, 1831 

'< May 29, 1833 

Sept. 23, 1833 
" June 27, 1834 

" March 9, 1829 

<' Aug. I, 1831 

" March 9, 1S29 

" May 23, 1S31 

June 30, 1834 
" March 9, 1829 

'' May I, 1835 

" March 9, 1829 

" July 20, 1831 

Nov. IS, 1833 

4, 1841 (one term). 

appointed March 4, 1837 
" March 4, 1837 

" March 7, 1837 



552 



CABINETS OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



Secretary of Navy : 
Postmaster- General: 
Attorney- General: 



Mahlon Dickerson, 
James K. Paulding, 
Amos Kendal, 
John M. Niles, 
Benjamin F. Butier, 
Felix Grundy, 
Henry D. Gilpin, 



appointed March 4, 1837 

" June 25, 1838 

" March 4, 1837 

" May 25, 1840 

" March 4, 1837 
July 5, 1838 

" Jan. II, 1840 



William H. Harrison: March 4, 1841 — April 6, 1841 (partial term). 



Secretary of State : Daniel Webster, 

" Treasury : Thomas Ewing, 

« War: John Bell, 

" Navy : George E. Badger, 

Postmaster-General : Francis Granger, 
Attorney- General: John J. Crittenden, 



appointed March 5, 1841 
« March 5, 1841 

" March 5, 1841 

" March 5, 1841 

" March 6, 1841 

" March 5, 1841 



John Tyler: April 6, 1841 — March 4, 1845 (partial term). 

Secretary of State : Dahiel Webster, appointed April 6, 

'« " Hugh S. Legare, " May 9, 

" « Abel P. Upshur, " July 24, 

« " John C. Calhoun, " March 6, 

" Treasury: Thomas Ewing, " April 6, 

" " Waker Forward, " Sept. 13, 

" " John C. Spencer, " March 3, 

" " George M. Bibb, " June 15, 

" War: John Bell, " April 6, 

" '* John C. Spencer, " Oct. 12, 

« " James M. Porter, " March 8, 

«' " William Wilkins, " June 15, 

" Navy: George E. Badger, " April 6, 

«' " Abel P. Upshur, " Sept. 13, 

« " David Henshaw, " July 24, 

" " Thomas W. Gilmer, " Feb. 15, 

" " John Y. Mason, " March 14, 

Postmaster- General : Francis Granger, " April 6, 

Charles A. Wickliffe, " Sept. 13, 

Attorney-General: John J. Crittenden, " April 6, 

" " Hugh S. Legare, " Sept. 13, 

" " John Nelson, " July i, 

James K. Polk: March4, 1845 — March 5, 1849 (one term). 



841 
843 
843 
844 
841 
841 

843 
844 
841 
841 

843 
844 
841 
841 
843 
844 
844 
841 
841 
841 
841 
843 



Secretary of State : 
" Treasury 

" War : 

" Navy : 

« i< 

Postmaster- General: 
Attorney- General : 



James Buchanan, 
• Robert J. Walker, 
William L. Marcy, 
George Bancroft, 
John Y. Mason, 
Cave Johnson, 
John Y. Mason, 
Nathan Clifford, 
Isaac Toucey, 



appointed March 6, 1845 

" March 6, 1845 

" March 6, 1845 

«' March 10, 1845 

" Sept. 9, 1846 

" March 6, 1845 

" March 6, 1845 

" Oct. 17, 1846 

« June 21, 1848 



CABINETS OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



55. 



Zachary Taylor : March 5, 1849 — July 9, 1850 (partial term). 



Secretary of State : 

" Treasury . 

War: 
" Navy : 

'' Interior : 

Postmaster- General : 
Attorney- General : 



John M. Clayton, 
William M. Meredith, 
George W. Crawford, 
William B. Preston, 
Thomas Ewing, 
Jacob Collamer, 
Reverdy Johnson, 



Millard Fillmore: July 9, 1850 — March 4, 

Secretary of State : Daniel Webster, 
" " Edward Everett, 

Treasury : Thomas Corwin, 



" War : 

" Navy : 

a a 

" Interior. 

Postmaster- General : 

Attorney- General : 



Charles M. Conrad, 
William A. Graham, 
John P. Kennedy, 
Alex. H. H. Stuart, 
Nathan K. Hall, 
Samuel D. Hubbard, 
John J. Crittenden, 



appointed March 7, 1849 

" March 8, 1849 

" March 8, 1849 

" March 8, 1849 

" March 8, 1849 

" March 8, 1849 

" March 8, 1849 

1853 (partial term). 

yppointed July 32, 1850 
" Nov. 6, 1852 

July 23, 1850 
" Aug. 15, 1850 
" July 22, 1850 
" July 22, 1852 

" Sept. 12, 1850 
'' July 23, 1S50 

Aug. 31, 1852 
" July 22, 1850 



Franklin Pierce: March 4, 1853 — March 4, 18^7 (one term) 



Secretary of State : 
•' Treasury 

" War: 

" Na'tj: 

" Interior: 

Postmaster- General: 
Attorney- Getieral: 



William L. Marcy, 
James Guthrie, 
Jefferson Davis, 
James C. Dobbin, 
Robert McClelland, 
James Campbell, 
Caleb Gushing, 



appointed March 7, 1853 

" March 7, 1853 

" March 5, 1853 

" March 7, 1853 

" March 7, 1853 

" March 5, 1853 

" March 7, 1853 



James Buchanan: March 4, 1857 — March 4, 1861 (one term). 



Secretary of State: 



" War: 

<< << 

" Navy: 

" Interior. 

Postmaster- General- 



Attorney- General: 



Lewis Cass, 
Jeremiah S. Black, 
Treasury: Howell Cobb, 
" Philip F. Thomas, 

" John A. Dix, 

John B. Floyd, 
Joseph Holt, 
Isaac Toucey, 
Jacob Thompson, 
Aaron V. Brown, 
Joseph Holt, 
Horatio King, 
Jeremiah .S. Black, 
Edwin M. Stanton, 



appointed March 6, 

«' Dec. 17, 

" March 6, 

" Dec. 12, 

•' Jan. II, 

" March 6, 
Jan. 18, 

" March 6, 

" March 6, 

" March 6, 

" March 14, 

" Feb. 12, 

" March 6, 

" Dec. 20, 



1857 
i860 
1857 
i860 
1861 

1857 
1861 
1857 
1857 
1857 

i«59 
1861 

1857 
i860 



Abraham Lincoln: March 4, 1 861— April 15, 1865 (one term and a 
part). 

Secretary of State : William H. Seward, appointed March 5, 1861 

« Treasury: Salmon P. Chase, " March 7, 1861 



554 



CABINETS OF TME PRESIDENTS. 



Secretary of Treasury . 
<( << 

" War: 

" Navy : 

" Interior: 

<< << 

Postmaster- General : 

H (< 

Attorney- General : 



William P. Fessenden, 
Hugh McCulloch, 
Simon Cameron, 
Edwin M. Stanton, 
Gideon Welles, 
Caleb B. Smith, 
John P. Usher, 
Montgomery Blair, 
William Dennison, 
Edward Bates, 
Titian J. Coffey, ad int., 
James Speed, 



appointed July i, 1864 
" March 7, 1865 

" March 5, 1861 

" Jan. 15, 1862 

" March 5, 1861 

" March 5, 1 861 

Jan. 8, 1863 
" March 5, 1861 

'' Sept. 24, 1864 

" March 5, i86l 

" June 22, 1863 

" Dec. 2, 1864 



Andrew Johnson: April 15, 1865 — March 4, 1869 (partial term). 



Secretary of State . 



Treasury 
War: 



Navy : 
Interior : 



Postmaster- General : 
Attorney- General : 



William 11. Seward, 
Elihu B. Washburne, 
Hugh McCulloch, 
Edwin M. Stanton, 
Ulysses S. Grant, ad int., 
Lorenzo Thomas, 
John M. Schofield, 
Gideon Welles, 
John P. Usher, 
James Harlan, 
Orville H. Browning, 
William Dennison, 
Alexander W. Randall, 
James Speed, 
Henry Stanbery, 
William M. Evarts, 



appointed April 15, 

'' March 5, 

" April 15, 

April 15, 

Aug. 12, 

Feb. 21, 

May 28, 

April 15, 

April 15, 

May 15, 

July 27, 

April 15, 

July 25, 

April 15, 
July 23, 

July 15. 



1865 
1869 
1865 
1865 
1868 
1868 
1868 
1865 
1865 
1865 
1866 
1865 
1866 
1865 
1866 
1868 



Ulysses S. Grant: March 4, 1869 — March 5, 1877 (two terms). 

Secretary of State : Hamilton Fish, appointed March II, 1869 

George S. Boutwell, " March 11,1869 

William A. Richardson, " March 17, 1873 

Benjamin H. Bristow, " June 4,1^74 

Lot M. Morrill, " July 7, 1876 

John A. Rawlins, " March 11, 1869 

William W. Belknap, " Oct. 25, 1869 

Alphonso Taft, " March 8, 1876 

James D. Cameron, " May 22, 1876 

Adolph E. Borie, " March 5, 1869 

George M. Robeson, " June 25, 1869 

Jacob D. Cox, " March 5, 1869 

Columbus Delano, " Nov. i, 1870 

Zachariah Chandler, " Oct. 19, 1875 

John A. J. Creswell, " March 5, 1869 

Marshall Jewell, " Aug. 24, 1874 

James N. Tyner, " July 12, 1876 

E. Rockwood Hoar, " March 5, 1869 

Amos T. Akerman, " June 23, 1870 

George H. Williams, " Dec. 14, 1871 

Edwards Pierrepont, " April 26, 1875 

Alphonso Taft, " May 29, 1876 



Treasury 



War. 



Navy : 
Interior . 



Postmaster- General : 



Attorney- General . 



COMMANDERS OF THE U. S. ARMY. 



555 



Rutherford B, Hayes : March 5, 1877— March 4, i88i (one term). 



Secretary of State : William M. Evarts, 

Treasury : John Sherman, 



appointed March 
" March 



" War . 

<( <( 

" Navy : 

« << 

" Interior : 

Postmaster- General : 

Attorney- General : 
James A. Garfield : 

Secretary of State : 
'' Treasury 

" War : 

" Navy : 

" Interior : 

Postmaster- General : 
Attorney- General : 



George W. McCrary, " March 

Alexander Ramsey, " Dec. 

Richard W. Thompson, " March 

Nathan Goft', Jr., " Jan. 

Carl Schurz, " March 

David McK. Key, •' March 

Horace Maynard, " June 

Charles Devens, " March 



12, 1877 

8, 1877 

12, 1877 

10, 1879 

12, 1877 

6, 1881 

12, 1877 

12, 1877 

2, 1S80 

12, 1877 



March 4, 1881 — September 19, 1881 (partial term). 



James G. Blaine, 
William Windom, 
Robert T. Lincoln, 
William H. Hunt, 
Samuel J. Kirkwood, 
Thomas L. James, 
Wayne MacVeagh, 



appointed March 5, 1881 

" March 5, 1 88 1 

March 5, 1881 

March 5, 1881 

March 5, 1881 

" March 5, 1881 

" March 5, 1881 



Chester A. Arthur, September 20, 1881- 



Secretary of State : 

" Treasury . 

" War : 

" Navy : 

" Interior : 

Postmaster- General: 



F. T. Frelinghuysen, 
Charles J. Folger, 
Robert T. Lincoln, 
William E. Chandler, 
Henry M. Teller, 
Timothy O. Howe, 



Attorney- General : Benjamin H. Brewster, 



appointed Dec. 12, 1881 
Oct. 27, 1 88 1 
" Sept. 20, 1881 

" April I, 1882 

" April 6, 1882 

" Dec. 20, 1881 

" Dec. 19, 1881 



COMMANDERS OF THE U. S. ARMY— 1775-1884. 



Major-General George Washington 1""* '5> '77S> '° December 23, 1783. 

Major-General Henry Knox December 23, 1783, to June 20, 1784. 

Lieutenant-Colonel Josiah Harmer, gener- 
ai-in-chief by brevet September, 1788, to March, 1791. 

Major-General Arthur St. Clair March 4, 1791, to March, J792. 

Major-General Anthony Wayne April 11, 1792, to December 15, 1796. 

Major-General James Wilkinson December 15, 1796, to July. 1798. 

Lieutenant-General George Washington. ..July 3, 1798, to his death, December 14, 1799. 

Major-General James Wilkinson June, 1800, to January, 1812. 

Major-General Henry Dearborn January 27, 1812, to June, 1815. 

Major-General Jacob Brown June, 1815, to February 2t, 1828 

Major-General Alexander Macomb May 24, 1828, to June, 1841. 

Major-General Winfield Scott (brevet Lieu- 
tenant-General) June, 1841, to November I, 1861. 

Major-General George B.McClellan November 1, 1861, to March 11, 1862. 

Major-General Henry W. Halleck July ". 1862. to March 12. 1864. 

Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant March 12 1864, to July 25, 1866, and as Gen- 
eral to March 4, 1869. 

General William T. Sherman March 4, 1869, to November i. 1883. 

Lieutenant-General Philip H. Sheridan. ...Since November i, 1883. 



556 



CHIEF OFFICERS OF THE U. S. NAVY. 



CHIEF OFFICERS OF THE U. S. ARMY. 

Entered the Army. 

General of the Army Lieut. -Gen. Philip H.Sheridan 1853 

Major-Generals Winfield S. Hancock 1844 

John M. Schofield 1853 

John Pope 1842 

Brigadier-Generals Oliver O. Howard 1854 

Alfred H. Terry 1865 

Christopher C. Augur 1843 

George Crook 1852 

Nelson A. Miles 1866 

Ranold S. Mackenzie 1862 



CHIEF OFFICERS OF THE U. S. NAVY. 


Name. 


Whence 

Ap- 
pointed. 


Original 

Entry 

into 

Service. 


Rank. ) 


David D. Porter 


Penn 


1829 


Admiral. 



Stephen C. Rowan... 

John L. Worden 

Edward T. Nichols.. 
George H. Cooper.. 

Aaron K. Hughes 

Charles H. Baldwin. 
Robert W. Shufeldt. 
Thomas Pattison 



Edward Simpson 

William G. Temple... 

Thomas S. Phelps 

Clark H. Wells 

S. P. Huackenbush 

Earl English 

John 11. Upshur 

Francis A. Roe 

Samuel R. Franklin.... 
Edward Y. McCauley. 

J.C. P. de Krafft 

Oscar C. Badger 

Stephen B. Luce 

John Lee Davis 

Alexander A. Semmes. 
William T. Truxtun..., 

Jonathan Young 

William K. Mayo 

James E. Jowett 

T. Scott Fillebrown.... 
Tohnuss H. Rell 



Ohio , 

N. Y 

Ga 

N. Y 

N. Y 

N. Y 

N. Y 

N. Y 

N. Y 

Vt 

Maine... 

Penn 

N. Y.... 

N. J 

D. C 

N. Y.... 

Penn 

Penn 

Ill 

Penn 

N. Y 

Ind 

Md 

Penn 

Ill 

Va 

Ky 

Maine... 
Md 



1826 

1834 
1836 

1837 
1838 

1839 
1839 
1839 

1840 
1840 
1840 
1840 
1840 



184 
184 
184 
184 



184 
184 



Vice-Admiral. 



\ Rear- Admirals. 



- Commodorei>, 



SPEAA'ERS. 



557 



SPEAKERS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES." 




F. A. Muhlenberg Pennsylvania 

Jonathan Trumbull "Connecticut, 

F.A.Muhlenberg.... 
Jonathan Dayton 



Theodore Sedgwick 
Nathaniel Macon , 



Joseph B. Varnum.. 
Henry Clay 



Langdon Cheves., 
Henry Clay , 



John W. Taylor New York.. 

Philip P. Barbour Virginia., 

Henry Clay Kentucky.. 

John W.Taylor iNew York, 

Andrew Stevenson i Virginia.,.. 



Pennsylvania . 
New Jersey.... 



Massachusetts... 
North Carolina. 



Massachusetts.. 
Kentucky 



South Carolina. 
Kentucky 



John Bell 

James K. Polk. 



Tennessee. 



Robert M. T. Hunter j Virginia , 

John White ! Kentucky 
ohn W. Jones 'Virginia 

John W. Davis ilndiana 

Robert C. Winthrop | Massachusetts . 

Howell Cobb Georgia 

Linn Boyd JKentucky 



Nathaniel P. Banks Massachusetts.. 

James L. Orr , South Carolina., 

Wm. Pennington New Jersey 

Galusha A. Grow Pennsylvania ... 

Schuyler Colfax Indiana 



James G. Blaine. 



Michael C. Kerr.... 
Samuel J. Randall. 



J. Warren Keifer.. 
John G. Carlisle.... 



Indiana 

Pennsylvania. 



Ohio 

Kentucky., 



ist 

2d 

3d 

4th 

5th 

6th 

7th 

8th 

gth 

loth 

nth 

I2th 

13th 

13th 

14th 

15th 

1 6th 

i6th 

17th 

1 8th 

19th 

2oth 

2ISt 
22d 
23d 
23d 
24th 
25th 
26th 
27th 
28th 
29th 
30th 
31st 

32d 
33C1 
34th 
35th 
36th 
37th 
38th 
39th 
40th 
41st 
42d 
43d 
44th 
44th 
45th 
46th 
47th 
48th 



April I, 

October 24, 
December 2, 
December 7, 
May 15, 

December 2, 
December 7, 
October 17, 
December 2, 
October 26, 
May 22, 

November 4, 
May 24, 

January 19, 
December 4, 
December i, 
December 6, 
November 15, 
December 4, 
December i, 
December 5, 
December 3, 
December 7, 
December 5, 
December 2, 
June 2, 

December 7, 
September 5, 
Decemberi6, 
May 31, 

December 4, 
December i, 
December 6, 
December22, 
December i, 
December 5, 
February 2, 
December 7, 
February i, 
J'lly 4, 

December 7, 
December 4, 
March 4, 
March 4, 
March 4, 
December i, 
December 6, 
December 4, 
October 15, 
March i8, 
December 5, 
December 3, 



789, to March 4 
791, to March 4 
71)3, to March 4 
795, to March 4 
797, to March 3 
799, to March 4 
801, to March 4 
S03, to March 4 
805, to March 4 
807, to March 4 
809, to March 4 
8n, to March 4 

813, to Jan'y 19 

814, to March 4 

815, to March 4, 
817, to March 4 

819, to May 15 

820, to March 4 

821, to March 4, 
823, to March 4 

I25, to March 4 
827, to March 4 
829, to March 4 
S31, to March 4 

833, to June 2 

834, to March 4 

835, to March 4 
837, to March 4 
839, to March 4 
841, to March 4 
843, to March 4, 
845, to March 4 
847, to March 4 
849, to March 4 
851, to March 4 
853, to March 4 

856, to March 4 

857, to March 4 
860, to March 4 
86i, to March 4 
863, to March 4 
865, to March 4 
867, to March 4 
869, to March 4 
871, to March 4 

873, to March 4 

875, to Aug. 20 

876, to March 4 

877, to March 4 
879, to March 4 
881, to March 4 
883, to 



791 
793 

795 
797 
799 



807 
809 
811 
813 
814 
815 
817 
819 
820 
821 
S23 
82s 
827 
829 
831 
833 
834 
835 
837 
839 
841 

843 
845 
847 
849 
85X 
853 
855 
857 
859 
861 
863 
865 
867 
869 
871 
873 
875 
876 
877 

879 
83i 
883 



* Not including Speakers/ri? Um. 



CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATION OF THE STATES. 
I. Ratio ok Representatives and Population. 

By Constitution, 1789 One to 30,000. 

• " First Census, from March 4th, 1793 " 33,000. 

" Second " " " 1803 " 33.000- 

«« Third " " " 1813 " 35.ooo- 



55? 



CONGRESSTONAL REPRESENTA TION. 



By Fourth Census, from March 4th, 1823 One to 40,odd! 

" Fifth " " " 1833 " 47,700. 

" Sixth " " "1843 " 7o,68d; 

" Seventh " " " 1853 " 93,423. 

" Eii^hth " " " 1863 " 127,381. 

'• Ninth " " " 1873 " 131,425. 

" Tenth " " " 1883 " 154,325. 



II. Representatives from Each State Under Each Census. 



Connecticut 

Delaware 

Georgia 

Maryland 

Massachusetts 

New Hampshire. 

New Jersey 

New York 

North Carolina... 

Pennsylvania 

Rhode Island 

South Carolina.... 

Virginia 

Kentucky 

Vermont 

Tennessee .. 

Ohio 

Alabama 

Illinois 

Indiana 

Louisiana 

Maine. 

Mississippi 

Missouri 

Arkansas 

Michigan 

California , 

Florida 

Iowa 

Minnesota 

Oregon 



Texas. 

Wisconsin 

Kansas 

Nebraska 

Nevada 

Colorado 

West Virginia. 



Consti- 
tution, 
1789. 



5 
I 

3 
6 
8 
3 
4 
6 

5 
8 
I 

5 
10 



^ c to C 



!-5 3 



Whole number 65 105 141 181 213 240 223 237 243 293 325 



j2 3 'j= 3 



SUPREME COURT. 



559 



Chief Justices and Associate Justices of 
the U. S. Supreme Court.* 



John Jayt 

John Rutledgef 

William Cushing§ 

James Wilson g 

John Blairf 

Robert H. Harrison f .... 

James Iredell I 

Thomas Johnson f 

William Patterson \ , 

John Rutledge I 

Samuel Chase § 

Oliver Ellsworth f... 
Bushrod Washington \... 

Alfred Moore f , 

John Marshall^ 

William Johnson 1........ 

Brockholst Livingston \ . . 

Thomas Todd§ 

Joseph Story^ 

Gabriel Duval-}- 

Smith Thompson ^ 

Robert Trimble g 

John McLean §. 

Henry Baldwin^ 

James ^L Wayne | 

Roger B. Taney ? 

Philip P. Barbour § 

John Catron § 

John McKinley^ 

Peter V. Daniel I 

Samuel Nelson f 

Levi Woodbury | 

Robert C. Grierf 

Benjamin R. Curtis f.... 

John A. Campbell -f- 

Nathan Clifford? 

Noah H. Swaynef 

Samuel F. Miller 

David Davisf 

Stephen J. Field 

Salmon P. Chase §... 

William Strongf 

Joseph P. Bradley 

Ward Hunt 

Morrison R. "Waite. 

John M. Harlan 

William B. Woods 

Stanley Matthews , 

Horace Gray 

Samuel Blatchford , 



State Whence Appointed. 



New York 

South Carolina... 
Massachussetts.... 

Pennsylvania 

Virgmia 

Maryland 

North Carolina... 

Maryland 

New Jersey 

South Carolina... 

Maryland 

Connecticut 

Virginia 

North Carolina... 

Virginia 

South Carolina... 

New York 

Kentucky 

Massachusetts 

Maryland 

New York 

Kentucky 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania 

Georgia 

Maryland 

Virginia 

Tennessee 

Alabama 

Virginia 

New York 

New Hampshire. 

Pennsylvania 

Massachusetts 

Alabama 

Maine 

Ohio 

Iowa 

Illinois 

California , 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania 

New Jersey 

New York 

Ohio 

iKentucky 

[Georgia 

'Ohio 

Massachusetts 

New York 



Term of 
Service. 



1789- 
1789- 

17S9- 
1789- 
1789. 
1789- 
1790- 
179I- 
1793- 
1795- 
1796- 
1796- 
1798- 
1799- 
180I- 
1S04- 
1806- 
1807- 
1811- 
181I- 
1S23- 
1826- 
1829- 
1830- 

1835- 
1836- 
1836- 
1837- 
1837- 
184I- 
1845- 
1845- 
1846 
1851- 

1853- 
1858- 
1861- 
1862- 
1862- 
1863- 
1864- 
1870- 
1870- 
1872- 1882 
1874- 
1877- 
1880- 
1881- 
1881- 
I1882- 



795 
791 
810 
798 
796 
790 
799 
793 
806 

795 
811 
801 
829 
804 
835 
834 
823 
826 

845 
836 

845 
828 
86i 
846 
867 
864 
841 
S65 
852 
860 
872 
851 
869 

857 
861 
881 
881 

877 

873 
880 



• Chief Justices in heavy type, f Resigned. X Presided one term, g Died in office. 



560 WHERE OUR CHIEF OFFICERS CAME FROM. 



WHERE OUR CHIEF OFFICERS CAME FROM. 
From the beginning of the Government in ijSg to 1884. 



States. 




1 c 

>l 

p. 




•E V. 

S B 




CO 




'5 S 

u 


u 




.1; 

1/3 


S2 . 

S c 

SO 


c 

c 



t; 

3 

u S 

U 3 

3 


-g 


3 


a 



t 
K 


5 
• 


Alabama 




I 
















2 


2 




5 


Arkansas 


















California 




















I 






I 


Colorado 


























Connecticut 








I 
I 


I 


2 


I 


4 


I 
I 


I 


3 


■ I 


15 
4 


Delaware 






2 


Florida 




















Georgia 






I 
I 


2 

I 


2 

2 



2 


I 


I 

2 
2 


I 
2 


2 


2 

I 


3 
I 


I 
3 


14 
8 


Illinois 


2 


I 


Indiana 


II 


Iowa 




I 


5 


Kansas 


















Kentucky 




2 
I 


I 

I 
I 
I 

3 
I 


3 

2 
2 
3 

I 
I 


I 
I 






4 


3 


3 


2 


^ 


23 


Louisiana 


I 


I 




Maine 




I 

2 
I 


I 

5 
5 


I 
5 
4 




2 

2 
2 


I 

4 


8 


Maryland 




I 

4 
I 


3 
5 


2 


?i 


Massachusetts 

Michigan 


2 


3 


36 
6 


Minnesota 












I 


Mississippi 








I 




I 
I 








I 

I 




4 
3 


Rfissouri 










I 




Nebraska 














Nevada 




























New Hampshire 

New Jersey 


I 






I 




2 

3 
2 

4 








I 

2 
6 
2 

5 


3 

I 
I 

3 

I 


2 
I 
I 
I 


8 




I 
5 




4 


3 


9 


New York 


3 


7 


4 


5 


North Carolina 


10 


Ohio 


3 






4 


3 




3 


3 

I 
6 


76 


Oregon 


I 


Pennsylvania 

Rhode Island 


I 


I 


3 


7 


6 


2 




2 


4 


3 

2 

3 
2 

I 

3 
6 


3 

2 
2 

4 


38 
7. 


South Carolina 


3 


I 
I 


2 


I 


2 
2 


I 






I 
I 


2 
I 


M 


Tennessee 




3 


16 


Texas 


I 


Vermont .. 
















I 






<f 


Virginia.. 


5 


2 


6 




3 


4 




4 


5 


40 


West Virginia . .. 




Wisconsin 
















2 
30 






I 
50 


30 


3 

38 


Total 


21 


20 


29 


34 


37 


30 


14 


38 


49 





OUR REPRESENTATIVES ABROAD. 



561 



OUR REPRESENTATIVES ABROAD, 



COUKTRY. 


Name and Rank. 


Residence. 


Salary, 


Argentine Republic 


Thomas O. Osbom, Min. Res 

Alphonso Taft,* E. E. and W. P 

Henry White, Sec. Leg., and C. G 




#7.500 


Austria-Hungary ... 








3.5°o 
7.500 
5,000 








Rich.-ird Gibbs, M. R. and C. G 


La Paz 


Brazil 


Thomas A. Osborne, E. E. and M. P. 
Charles B. Trail, Sec. Legation 










Central American 
States 


Henry C. Hall, E. E. and M. P 

C. A. Logan, E. E. and M. P 






Chili 


Santiago _ 






J. Russell Young, E. E. and M. P 

Jhester Holcombe, Sec. and Int 

Wm. L. Scruggs, Minister Res 

Lucius H. Foote, E. E. and M. P 

Wick'm Hoffman, M. R. and C. G.... 
Levi P. Morton, E. E. and M. P 






Peking 


5,000 

7.500 
5,000 
5,000 
17.500 
3,625 
















Paris 




E. J. Brulatour, Sec. Legation 


Paris. . 




Henri Vignaud, 2d Sec. Legation 

Aaron A. Sargent, E. E. and M. P.... 

H. Sidney Everett, Sec. Legation 

Chapman Coleman, 2d S. Legation 

James R. Lowell, E. E. and M. P 


Paris 






17,500 
2,625 




Berlin 




Berlin 




London 


17.500 












Greece 


Eugene Schuyler, M. R. and C. G 

RoUin M. Daggett, Min. Res 




6,500 
7,500 






John M. Langston, M. R. and C. G.. 

Wm. W. Astor, E. E. and M. P 

Lewis Richmond, Sec. of Leg. and C. 
G 


Port au Prince 










3.500 




John A. Bingham, E. E. and M. P.... 
Sustavus Goward, Sec. Legation 


Tokei (Yedo) 






2,500 
2,500 
S.ooo 




Tokei (Yedo) 


T 'he ' 


J. H. Smyth, M. R. and C. G 






Philip H. Morgan, E. E. and M. P... 

Henry H. Morgan, Sec. Legation 

Wm. L. Dayton, Minister Res 








1,800 




The Hague 


7.500 
5,000 


Paragruay and Uru- 


Wm. Williams, Charge d' Affaires 

S. G. W. Benjamin, ISIin. Res. and 










5,000 




SethS. Phelps, E. E. and M.P 






John M. Francis, M. R. and C. G 

Eugene Schuyler, M.R.andC. G 

George W. Wertz, Sec. Legation 

Eugene Schuyler, M. R. and C. G...._ 

J. A. Halderman, M. R.and C. G 

John W. Foster, E. E. and M. P 

Dwight T. Reed, Sec. and C. G 

Wm. W.Thomas, Jr., Min. Res 

Michael J. Cramer, M. R. and C. G... 

Lewis Wallace, E. E. and M. P 

G. Harris Heap. Sec. Leg. and C. G.. 




5,000 






6,500 




St. Petersburg 


17.S00 









c 


Athens 


6,500 


'? ■ 




5.000 




Madrid 


12,000 


P*' 


Madrid 


3,000 

7,5a> 
5.090 


Sweden and Norway 




Berne, 

Constantinople 




7.500 


lurey 




3.500 
3,000 
7.S00 








Jehu Baker, Minister Res 









\ 



562 



OL/J? REPRESENTATIVES FROM ABROAD. 



OUR REPRESENTATIVES FROM ABROAD 



Country. 



Name. 



-i 



Argentine Republic. 
Austria- Hungary .... 
Belgium 



Senor Don Douis L. Dominguez.* 

Senor Don Florencio L. Dominguez.f 
Baron Ignatz von Schaeffer (absent).* 

Count von Ijppe Weissenfield.J 
Mr. Bounder de Melsbroeck.* 

ICount Gaston d'Arschot.J 

Brazil Senhor J. G. do Amaral Valente.J 

Chili Senor Don Joaquin Godoy.* 

Senor Don Federico Pinto. f 
China [Mr. Cheng Tsao Ju.* 

;Mr. Tsii Shau Pung.f 

Denmark 'Mr. Carl Steen Anderson de Billie.g 

France Mr. Theodore Roustan (absent).* 

[Mr. Horace Denaut.J 
Germany [Captain C. von Eisendacker.* 

Count Lyden.f 
Great Britain The Honorable L. S. Sackville West.* 

Dudley E. Saurin, Esq.f 

Hawaii Mr. H. A. P. Carter.* 

Hayti Mr. Stephen Preston.* 

Mr. Charles A. Preston.f 
Italy 'Baron de Fava (absent).* 

Marquis A. Dalla Valle de Mirabello.J 
Japan Joshii Terashima Munenori (absent").* 

Mr. Naito Ruijiro.f 
Mexico Senor Don Matias Romero (absentV* 

Sefior Don Cayetano Romero. | 
Netherlands Mr. G. de Weckherlin (absent).? 

Baron P. de Smeth Van Alphen \ 

Peru Senor Don J. Federico Elmore. | 

Portugal IViscount das Nogueiras.* 

Russia Mr. Charles de Struve.* 

Mr. Gregoire de Willamov.f 
Spain 



Sweden and Norway. 



Switzerland . 



Turkey... 
Uruguay , 



Sefior Don Juan Valera.* 

Senor Don Enrique Dupuy de Lome. J 

Count Carl Lewenhaupt (absent).* 

Mr. C. de Bildt.J 

Colonel Emile Frey.* 

Major Karl Kloss.f 

Tewfik Pasha.* 

Rustem Effendi.f 

Senor Don Enrique M. Estrazulas. \ 



* Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, -r Secretary of Legation. 
t Counselor and Charge d' Affaires, g Minister Resident^nd Consul General. 



FAV OF CHIEF OFFICERS U. S. NAVY. rg^ 

PAY OF THE CHIEF OFFICERS OF THE U. S. NAVY. 



Admiral 

Vice-Admiial 

Rear- Admirals 

Commodores 

Captains... 

Commanders 

Lieutenant-Commanders— 

First four years 

After four years 

Lieutenants — First five years 

After five years 

Masters — -First five years 

After five years 

Ensign.s — First five years 

After five years 

Midshipmen 

Cadet Midshipmen 

Mates 

Medical and Pay Directors, Inspectors, and 

Chief Engineers 

Fleet Surgeons, Paymasters, and Engineers 
Surgeons, Paymasters, and Chief Engineers — 

First five years 

Second five years 

Third five years 

Fourth five years 

After twenty years 

Passed A.ssistant Surgeons, Paymasters, and 

Engineers — First five years 

After five years 

Assistant Surgeons, Paymasters, and Engi- 
neers- 
First five years 

After five years 

Chaplains — First five years 

After five years... 

Boatswains, Gunners, Carpenters, and Sail- 
makers — 

First three years 

Second three years 

Third three years 

Fourth three years 

After twelve years 

Cadet Engineers (after examination) 







On Leave 


At Sea. 


On Shore 


or Waiting 




Duly. 


Orders 


13,000 


$13,000 


;?i3,ooo 


9,000 


8,000 


6,000 


6,000 


5,000 


4,000 


5,000 


4,000 


3,000 


4,500 


3,500 


2,800 


3,500 


3,000 


2,300 


2,800 


2,400 


2,000 


3,000 


2,600 


2,200 


2,400 


2,000 


1,600 


2,600 


2,200 


1, 800 


1,800 


1,500 


1,200 


2,000 


1,700 


1,400 


1,200 


1,000 


800 


1,400 


1,200 


1,000 


1,000 


800 


600 


500 


500 


500 


900 


700 


500 


4,400 






4,400 






2,800 


2,400 


2,000 


3,200 


2,800 


2,400 


3,500 


3,200 


2,600 


3.700 


3,600 


2,800 


4,200 


4,000 


3,000 


2,000 


1,800 


1,500 


2,200 


2,000 


1,700 


1,700 


1,400 


1,000 


1,900 


1,600 


1,200 


2,500 


2,000 


1,000 


2,800 


2,300 


1,900 


1,200 


900 


700 


1,300 


1,000 


800 


1,400 


1,300 


900 


1,600 


1,300 


1,000 


i,Soo 


1,600 


1,200 


1,000 


800 


600 



2 64 PAYMENTS FOR PENSIONS. 

PAY OF CHIEF OFFICERS OF THE U. S. ARMY. 





Pay of Officers in Active Service. 


Grade or Rank, 


Yearly Pay. 




First 5 
years 
service. 


After 5 
years 
service. 


After 10 
years 
service. 


After 15 

years 
service. 


After 20 
years 
service. 




^13,500 
1 1 ,000 
7,500 
5.500 
3.500 
3,000 
2,500 
2,000 
1,800 
1,800 
1,800 
1,600 
1,500 
1,500 
1,400 
1,500 


10 /. C. 


20 /. c. 


30 /. c. 


40 /. C. 


Lieutenant-Gencral 










Maior-General 










Brigadier-General •. . 










Colonel 


^3,850 
3.300 
2,750 
2,200 
1,980 
1,980 
1,980 
1,760 
1,650 
1,650 
1,540 
1,650 


^4,200 
3,600 
3,000 
2,400 
2,160 
2,160 
2,160 
1,920 
1,800 
1,800 
1,680 
1,800 


;S4,5oo 
3.900 
3.250 
2,600 
2,340 
2,340 
2,340 
2,080 
1,950 
1,950 
1,820 
1,950 


^4,500 
4,000 
3.500 
2,S00 


Major 


Captain, mounted 


Captain, not mounted 


2,520 
2,530 
2,520 
2,240 
2,100 
2,100 
1,960 
2,100 


Regimental Adjutant 


Regimental Quartermaster 

1st Lieutenant, mounted 

1st Lieutenant, not mounted... 

2d Lieutenant, mounted 

2d Lieutenant, not mounted.. 
Chaplain 



PAYMENTS FOR PENSIONS IN 1883. 



Pensions paid during the Year. 



Number of 
Pensioners. 



States. 



For Regular'^ J- ^^ 
Pensions, j p^„3ig„,. 



Maine 

Massachusetts 

Illinois 

Ohio 

New Hampshire.. 

Iowa 

Michigan 

Indiana 

Tennessee 

Kentucky 

Wisconsin 

New York 

Pennsylvania 

Pennsylvania 

California 

New York 

Kansas 

Dist. of Columbia 



Dollars. 

1,948,453.54 
4,045,320.08 
5.863,544-76 
5,636,155-64 
2,087,440.80 
3,616,997.31 

2,755.227-40 
5,100,507.50 
2,842,400.69 
1,600,370.16 
3,282,322.78 
2,809,535.73 
3,176,762.17 
3,054.975-95 
408,379.66 
4,088,557.37 
4,174,624.48 
3,572,433-21 



Dollars. 

521.47 
4,091.60 
5,260.30 

8.43'-57 
4,216.72 

1,413-73 

2,760.28 
4,126.67 
7,48383 
7.353-60 
3,515-42 
3,965-93 

s. 364-72 

4,081.47 



2,198.01 
8,053.01 
6,970-37 



60,064,009.23 79,808.70 



Salary and 

Expenses 

of Pension 

Agents. 



Dollars. 

11,938.11 
18,858.60 
22,643.97 
23,562.99 
13.264-55 
14,358-56 
14,039.04 
17^483.23 
15,379-76 
8,353-37 
14.391 -13 
19,205.99 

17.997-49 
13,224.50 
5,859.22 
19,240.51 
16,438.17 
22,915-73 



Total 
Disburse- 
ments. 



Dollars. 



.913-12 
,270.28 
,449.03 
,150.201 
,922.07' 
,769.60 
,026.72' 
,117.40] 
,264.28! 
i077-i3i 
,229.33 
,707.65 
.124-38 
,281.92 



4,068, 

5,89', 
5,668^ 
2,104 
3.632 
2,772 
5,122 
2,865] 
1,616, 
3,300 
2,832, 
3,200, 
3,072 

414: 

4,109, 

4,199: 
3,601, 



995.89 
115.66, 
.319-311 



11,526 
22,004 

23,557 
26,163 
11,028 
13,860 
11,999 
18,805 

17,693 
6,606 

13,033 
16,017 
18,715 
16,250 
1,962 
20,962 

15,193 
20,324 



288,154.92 160,431,972.851 



285,697 



11,827 
23,49s 

25.854 
27,686 
11,007 
16,051 
13,080 
20,921 
17,189 

7,001 
14,653 
16,141 
19,300 
16,006 

2,191 
22,338 
17,525 
21,393 



303.658 



BALANCE OF TRADE. 



565 



BALANCE OF TRADE, 

Showing our imports, our exports, and the excess either way for 

twenty years. 



Year. 


Merchandise at Gold Value. 




Imports. 


Exports. 


Excess. 


1864 

1865 

1866 

1867 

1868 


$316,447,283 
238,745.580 
434,812,066 
395,703,100 
357,430,440 
417,506,379 
435.958,408 
520,223,684 
626,505,077 
642,136,210 
567,406,342 
533.005,436 
460,741,191 
451,323,126 
437.051.532 
445.777.775 
667,954.746 
642,664,628 
724,639,574 
723,180,914 


$158,887,988 
162,013,500 
348,859,522 

297,303.653 
281,952,899 
286,117,697 
392,771,768 
442,820,178 
444,177,586 
522,479,317 
586,283,040 
513,441,711 
540,384,671 
602,475,220 
694,848,496 
710,439,441 
835,638,658 
902,367,346 

750,542,257 
823,839,402 


Imports $157,559,295 
Imports 76,732,082 
Imports 85,952,544 
Imports 98,459,447 
Imports 75,483,541 


1869 

1870 

1871 

1S72 

1873 


Imports 131,388,682 
Imports 43,186,640 
Imports 77,403,506 
Imports 182,417,491 
Imports 119,656,288 


1S74 


Exports 18,876,698 


1875 


Imports 19,563,725 


1876 


Exports 79,623,480 


1877 


Exports 152,152,094 


1878 


Exports 257,796,964 


1879 


Exports 264,661,666 


1880 


Exports 167,683,912 


1881 


Exports 259,702,718 


1882 


Exports 25,902,683 


188^ 


Exports 100,658,488 






-^ . 



Year. 




Specie. 






Imports. 


Exports. 


Excess. 


1864 


$13,115,612 
9,810,072 
10,700,092 
22,070,475 
14,188,368 
19,807,876 
26,419,179 
21,270,024 

13,743.689 
21,480,937 
28,454,906 
20,900,727 
15,936,681 
40,774,414 
29,821,314 
20,296,000 
93,034.310 

iio,57S,497 


$105,396,541 
67,643,226 
86,044,071 
60,868,372 
93,784,102 
57.138,380 
58,155,666 
98,441,988 

79,877.534 
84,608,574 

56,630,405 
92,132,142 
56,506,302 
56,162,237 
33,733,225 
24,997.441 
17,142,919 


Exports $92,280,929 


1865 


Exports 57,833,154 


1866 


Exports 75.343.079 


1867 


Exports 38.797,897 


1868 


Exports 79.595.734 


1869 


Exports 37,330.504 


1870 


Exports 31,736,486 


1871 


Exports 77,171,964 


1872 


Exports 66,133,845 


187^ 


Exports 63,127,637 


1874 


Exports 28,175,499 


i87t; 


Exports 71,231,425 


1S76 


Exports 40,569,621 


1877 

1878 

1870 


Exports 15,387,753 
Exports 3,911,911 
Exports 4,701,441 


1880 


Imports 75.891,191 


18S1 


10,406,847 1 Imports 01,168,650 


1882 


42,472,390 1 49.417,479 ! Exports 0,945,089 


1883 


28,489,391 


31,820,333 


Exports 3,330,942 



566 



REVENUES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Year Endbd 
Junk 30. 



Amount 
collected. 



Expense 
of collecting. 



185S $41,789,620.96 $2,903,336.89 

1859 49,565,824.38 3,407,93177 

i860 53,187,511.87 3,337,188.15 

1861 39,582,125.64 2,843,455.84 

1862 49,056,397.62 3,276,560.39 

1863 69,059,642.40 3.181,026.17 

1864 102,316,152.99 4,192,582.43 

1865 84928,260.60 5,415,449.32 

1866. 179,046,651.5s 5,342,469.99 

1867 176,417,810.88 5,763,979.01 

1868 164,464,599.56 7,641,116.68 

1869 180,048,426.63 5,388,082.31 

1870 194,538,374.44 6,233,747.68 

1871 206,270,408.05 6,568,350.61 

1872 216,370,286.77 6,950,173.88 

1873 188,089,522.70 7,077,864.70 

1874 163,103,833.69 7,321,469.94 

1875 157^167,722.35 7,028,521.80 

1876 148,071,984.61 6,704,858.09 

1877 130,956,493.07 6,501,037.57 

1878 130,170,680.20 5,826,974.32 

1879 137,250,047-70 5,477,421.52 

1880 186,522,064.60 6,023,253.53 

1881 198,159,076.02 6,383,288.10 

1882 220,410,730.25 6,506,359.26 

1883 214,706,496.93 6,593,509.43 

f 1863 1^37,640,787.95 $108,685.00 

1864. 109,741,134.10 253,372.99 

1865 209,464,215.25 385,239.52 

1866 309,226,813.42 5,783,128.77 

1867 266,027,537.43 7,335,029.81 

1868 191,087,589.41 8,705,366.36 

1869 158,356,460.86 7,257,176.11 

1870 184,899,756.49 7,253,439.81 

1871 143,098,153.63 7,593,714.17 

1872 130,642,177.72 5,694,116.86 

1873 113,729,314.14 5,340,230.00 

1874 102,409,784.90 4,509,976.05 

1875 110,007,493.58 4,289,442.71 

1876 116,700,732.03 3,942,613.72 

1877 118,630,407.83 3,556,943-85 

1878 110,581,624.74 3,280,162.22 

1879 113,561,610.58 I 3,527,956.56 

1880 124,009,373.92 1 3,657,105.10 

1881 1135,264,385.51 4,327,793.24 

1882 146,497,595.45 4,097,241.34 

1883 1144,720,368.98 I 4,424,707,39 



PUBLIC DEBT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



567 



PUBLIC DEBT OF THE UNITED STATES. 
[■7V January ist of each year to 1842. To July ist,from 1843- 1883. '\ 



1791 ^75-463.476 

1792 77,227,924 

1793 80,352,634 

1794 78,427,404 

1795 80,747,587 

1796 83,762,172 

1797 82,064.479 

1798 79,228,529 

1799 78,408,669 

1800 82,976,294 

1 801 83,038,050 

1802 86,712,632 

1803 77,054,686 

1804 86,427,120 

1805 82,312,150 

1806 75,723,270 

1807 69,218,398 

1808 65,196,317 

1809 57,023,192 

1810 53.173.217 

181 1 48,005,587 

1812 45,209,737 

1813 55,962,827 

1814 81,487,846 

1815 99,833,660 

1816 127,334,933 

1817 123,491,965 

1 818 103,466,633 

1819 95.529.648 

1820 91,015,566 

1821 89,987,427 

1822 93,546,676 

1823 90,875,877 

1824 90,269,777 

1825 83,788,432 

1826 81,054,059 

1827 73.987,357 

1828 67,475,043 

1829 58,421,413 

1830 48,565,406 

1831 39,123,191 

1832 24,322,235 

1833 7,001,698 

1834 4,760,082 

1835 37.513 

1836 336,957 

1837 3.308,124 



1838 ;gio,434,22i 14 

1839 3,573-343 82 

1840 5,250.875 54 

1841 13,594,480 73 

1842 20,601,226 28 

1843 32,742,922 00 

1S44 23,461,652 50 

1845 15.925.303 01 

1S46 15,550,202 97 

1847 38,826,534 77 

1S48 47,044,862 23 

1849 63,061,858 69 

1850 63,452,773 55 

1851 68,304,796 02 

1852 66,109,341 71 

1853 59,803,117 70 

1854 42,242,222 42 

1855 35,586,858 56 

1856 31.972,537 90 

1857 28,699,831 85 

1S58 44,911,881 03 

1859 58,496,837 88 

i860 64,842,287 88 

1861 90,580,873 72 

1862 524,176,412 13 

1863 1,119,772,138 63 

1864 1,815,784,370 57 

1865 2,680,647,869 74 

1866 2,773,236,173 69 

1867 , 2,678,126,103 87 

1868 2,611,687,851 19 

1869 2,588,452,213 94 

1870 2,480,672,427 81 

1871 2,353,211,332 32 

1872 2,253,251,328 78 

1873 2,234,482,993 20 

1874 2,251,690,468 43 

1875 2,232,284,531 95 

1876 2,180,395,067 15 

1877 2,205,301,392 10 

1878 2,256,205,892 53 

1S79 2,245,495,072 04 

1880 2,120,415,370 63 

1 881 2,069,013,569 58 

1882 1,918,312.994 03 

1S83 1,884,171,728 07 



568 



POLITICAL DIVISION OF THE HOUSE. 



POLITICAL DIVISION OF THE PRESENT HOUSE OF REPRE. 
SENTATIVES. 



States. 



Alabama 

Arkansas 

California 

Colorado 

Connecticut.... 

Delaware 

Florida 

Georgia 

Illinois 

Indiana 

Iowa 

Kansas 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maine 

Maryland 

Massachusetts., 

Michigan , 

Minnesota 

Mississippi 



States. 



Missouri 

Nebraska 

Nevada 

New Hampshire. 

New Jersey 

New York 

North Carolina... 

Ohio 

Oregon 

Pennsylvania. ... 

Rhode Island 

South Carolina... 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Vermont 

Virginia 

jWest Virginia... 
Wisconsin 



Total. 



14 



5 
I 

3 
124 



Total 322 

Greenback i 

Vacancies 2 



325 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 

[Went into operation on the first Wednesday in March, 1789.] 



PREAMBLE. 

We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect 
union establisli justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the com- 
mon defense, promote tlie general welfare, and secure the blessings of 
liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Con- 
stitution for the United States of America. 

ARTICLE I. 

or THE LEGISLATIVE POWER. 

Section 1. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a 
Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and Hous* 
of Representatives. 

OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 

Sec. 2. The House of Representatives shall be comiiosed of members 
chosen every second year by the people of the several States, and the elec- 
tors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for elestors of the 
most numerous branch of the State Legislature. 

No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the 
age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of tlie United 
States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State in 
which he shall be chosen. 

Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several 
States which maybe included within this Union, according to tlieir re- 
spective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole 
number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of 
years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-flfths of all other persons. 
The actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the first 
meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsoiiuent 
term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by laM' direct. The num- 
ber of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, hut 
each State shall have at least one Representative; and, until such enume- 
ration shall be Tn;ul(\ the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to 
choose three, Massarhuselts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Planta- 
tions one, Connecticut five. New York six. New .Jersey four, Pennsylvania 
eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten. North Carolina five, 
South Carolina five and Georgia three. 

When vacancies hajspen in the representation from any State, the execu- 
tive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to till such vacancies. 

The House of Uejiresintatives shall choose their speaker and other offi- 
cers; and shall have the sole power of iiupeachmeut. 

OF THE SENATE. 

Sec. 3. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators 
from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six years; and each 
Senator shall have one vote. 

Immediately after they shall be assembled in coiisequence of the first 
election, thev shall be divided as ei|nallvas maybe into three classes. 
The seats of the Senators of the first class shall be vacated at tlie expira- 
tion of the second year, of the second class at the expiration of the fourth 
year, and of the third class at the expiration of the sixth year, so that 
one-third may be chosen every second year; and if vacancies hapjien by 
resignation, or otherwise, during the rti'fss of the liCgislature ofaiiy Stat^ 
tlie executive thereof may make temjjorary ai)pointments until the next 
meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies. 



569 



570 



CONSTITUTION' 



No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the age oi 
thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and who 
Bhall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for which he shall 
be chosen. 

The Vice-President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, 
but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. 

The Senate shall choose their other officers, and have a President ^ra 
tempore, in the absence of the Vice-President, or when he shall exercise 
the office of President of the United States. 

The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. When 
sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. "When the 
President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside; and 
no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the 
members present. 

Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to 
removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of 
honor, trust or profit, under the United States; but the party convicted 
Bhall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment and 
punishment according to law. 

MANNER OF ELECTING MEMBERS. 

Sec. 4. The times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators 
and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature 
thereof; but the Congress may at any time, by law, make or alter such 
regulations, except as to the places of choosing Senators. 

CONGRESS TO ASSEMBLE ANNTJALLY. 

The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meet- 
ing shall be on tiie first Monday in December, unless they shall by law 
appoint a different day. 

POWERS. 

Sec. 5. Each house shall be the judge of the elections, returns and quali- 
fications of its own members, and a majority of each shall constitute a 
quorum to do business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day tp 
day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members, 
in such manner, and under such penalties, as each house may jirovide. 

Each house may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its mem- 
bers for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, 
expel a member. 

Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to 
time publish the same, excepting such parts as may, in their judgment, 
require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the members of either house 
on any question shall, at thedesireof one-fifth of those present, be entered 
on the journal. 

Neither house, during the session of Congress, shall, without the con- 
sent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place 
than that in which the two houses shall be sitting. 

COMPENSATION, ETC., OF MEIWBEES. 

Sec. fi. The Senators and Representatives shall receive a compensation 
for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the Treasury 
of the United States. They shall in all casses, except treason, felony and 
breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at 
the session of their respective houses, and in going to and returning from 
the same; and for any speech or debate in either liouse, they shall not be 
questioned in any other place. 

No Senator or Representative shall, during the time for which he was 
elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United 
States, which shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof shall 
have been increased during such time; and no person holding any office 
under the United States, shall be a member of either house during his 
continuance in office. 

MANTTER OF PASSING BILLS, ETC. 

Sec. 7. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Repr«- 
sentatives ; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on 
uther bills. 



OF THE UNITED STA TES. t>ji 

Every hill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and 
the Senate, shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the President of 
the United States; if he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return 
it, with his objections, to that house in which it shall have originated, who 
shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to recon- 
sider It. If, after such reconsideration, two-thirds of that house shall 
agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, tofiether with the objections, to tlie 
other house, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved 
by two-thirds of that house, it shall become a law. But in all such cases 
the votes of both houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the 
names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on 
the journal of each house respectively. If any bill shall not be returned 
by the President within ten days (Sunday excepted) after it shall have 
been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in likemanner as if he had 
signed it, unless the Congress by their adjournment prevent its return, iu 
which case it shall not be a law. 

Every order, resolution or vote, to which the concurrence of the Senate 
and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a (juestion of 
adjournment), shall be presented to the President of the ITnitcd States; 
and before the same shall take effect, shall be approved by him, or lu'ing 
disaijproved by him, shall be re-passed by two-thirds of the Senate and 
House oi Repieseutatives, according to 'the rules and limitations pre- 
scribed in the case of a bill. 

powt;r of congress. 

Sec. 8. The Congress shall haveipower to lay and collect taxes, duties, 
imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense 
and general welfare of tlie United States; but all duties, imposts and 
excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; 

To borrow money on the credit of the United States; 

To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several 
States, and with the Indian tribes; 

To establish an uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the 
subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States; 

To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix 
the standard of weights and measures; 

To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and cur- 
rent coin of the United States; 

To establish post-offlces and post-roads; 

To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited 
times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective 
writings and discoveries; 

To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court* 

To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, 
and otfenses against the law of nations; 

To declare war, grant letters of marcjue and reprisal, and make rules 
concerning captures on land and water; 

To raise and support armies, but no ajipropriation of money to that use 
Bhall be for a longer term than two years; 

To provide and maintain a navy; 

To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval 
forces; ,^, _. ^ 

To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, 
suppress insurrections and repel invasions; 

'J'o provide for organizing, arming and disciplining the militia, and for 
governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the 
United States, reserving to the States respectively the ai)pointment or the 
onicers, and the authority of training the militia according the diseiplmo 
]ircscrilied by Congress; 

To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such dis- 
trict (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by rcssion of particular- 
States and the acceptance of Congress, become the scat of the government 
of the United States, and to exercise lik.> authority over all pla<'es pur- 
cliased bv the consent of the I>egisiature of the State in which the same 
slial I be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards and other 
iipcilfnl bniUlings; and 

To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into 
•xecutiou the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Coa- 



572 



CONSTITUTION 



stltution in the government of the United States, or in any department or 
officer thereof. 

LIMITATION OF THE POWERS OF CONGRESS. 

Sec. 9. The migration or importation of such persons as any of the States 
now existing sliall think proper to admit, sliall not be proiiibited by tlie 
Congress prior to tiie year one tliousand eiglit hundred and eiglit, but a 
tax or duty may be imposed on sucli importation, not exceeding ten dol- 
lars for each person. 

The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless 
■when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. 

No bill of attainder or cr post fai'to law shall be passed. 

No capitation, or other direct tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to 
the census or enumeration hereinbefore directed to be taken. 

No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any State. 

No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue 
to the ports of on« State over those of another; nor shall vessels bound to, 
or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear or pay duties in another. 

No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in cojisequence of 
appropriations made by law; and a regular statement and account of the 
receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from 
time to time. 

No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States : and no person 
holding any office of profit or trust under them shall, without the consent 
of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office or title, of any 
kind whatever, from any king, prince or foreign State. 

LIMITATION OF THE POWERS OF THE INDTVIDTTAL STATES. 

Sec. 10. No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance or confederation; 
grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; 
make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts; 
pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation 
of contracts, or grant any title of nobility. 

No State shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any imposts or 
duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary 
for executing its inspection laws ; and the net produce of all duties and 
imposts, laid by any State on imports or exports, shall be for the use of the 
treasury of the United States; and all such laws shall be subject to the re- 
vision and control of the Congress. 

No State shall, without the consent of Congres-, lay any duty of tonnage, 
keep troops, or ships of war, in time of peace, enter into any agreement or 
compact with another State, or with a foreign power, or engage in war, 
unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit or 
delay. 

ARTICLE II. 

EXECUTIVE POWER. 

Sec. 1. The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United 
States of America. He sh;ill hold his office during the term of four years, 
and together with the Vice-President, chosen for the same term, be elected 
as follows: 

MANNER OF ELECTING. 

Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may 
direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and 
Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress; but 
no Senator or Representative, or person holding an ofllce of trust or profit 
under the United States, shall be appointed an elector. 

The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot for 
two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant with the 
same State as themselves. And they shall make a list of all the persons 
voted for, and of the number of votes for each ; which list they shall sign 
and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the 
United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of 
the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representa- 
tives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The 
person having the greatest number of votes shall be the President, if such 
number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed ; and if 
there be more than one who have such majority, and have an equal 



OF THE UNITED STATES. 



57, 



nrimVier of votes, thpii the TToase of Reprpspnlativps shall immediately 
choose by ballot one of them for President; and if no person have a 
majority, then from the five highest on the list the said House shall in 
like manner choose the President. But in choosing the President, tin- 
votes shall be taken by States, the representation from each .State having 
one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consistof a member or members 
from two-thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States sliall be 
necessary to a choice. In every case, after the choice of the President, tlie 
person having the greatest number of votes of the electors shall be the 
Vice-President. But If there should remain two or more who have equal 
Vjtes, the Senate shall choose from them by ballot the Vice-President. 

TIUTE OF CTTOOSING ELECTOBS. 

The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, and tho 
day on which they shall give their votes; which day shall be the saiu* 
throughout the United States. 

"WHO ELIGIBLE. 

No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States 
at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the 
tiffice of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that oflice who 
shall not have attained the age of thirty-live years, and been fourteen 
years a resident within the United States. 

WHEN THE PRESIDETTT'S POWER DEVOLVES ON THE VICE-PRESIDENT. 

In case of the removal of the President from oflice, or of his deatli, resig- 
nation or inability to dischai'ge the powers and duties of tliesaid ollice, 
tlie same shall devolve on the Vice-President, and the Congress may by 
law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation or inability, both 
of tlie President and Vice-President, declaring wliat ofliccr shall tlien act 
as President, and such officer shall act accordingly, until the disability be 
removed, or a President shall be elected. 

president's COMPENSATION. 

The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services a compens.'v» 
tion which shall neither 1)0 increased nor diminished during the [leriod 
for wiiich he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that 
period any other emolument from the United States, or any of them. 

OATH. 

Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following 
oath or aftirmation : '• I do solemnly swear ^oraltiriu) that 1 will faithfully 
execute the office of President of the United States, and will, to the best 
of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United 

States." 

POWERS AND DUTIES. 

Sec. 2. The President shall be Commander-in-Chief of the army and 
navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several States when 
called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the 
opinion, in writing, of the principal oflicer in each of the executive de- 
partments upon any subject relating to the duties of their resi)cctive 
offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for ollences 
airainst the United States, except in cases of impeac;hruent. 

lie shall have power by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. 
to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators iircsent concur; find 
he shall nominate, and by and with the advice antl consent of the Senate, 
shall appoint ambassatlors, other public ministers and cuiisuls, .Judges of 
the Supreme Court, and all other otlicei-K of the I'nited States, whose ap- 
pointments are not herein otherwise i^-ovided fur, and which shall bo 
established by law; but the CoTiiiress may l)y law vest the appointment of 
such inferior officers, as they tlunk proper, in the President alone, in tho 
Courts of law, or in the heads of departments. 

The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen 
during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall ex- 
pire at the end of their next session. 

Skc. 3. He shall, from time to time, give to the Congress information ol 
the state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such mea- 



574 



CONS TITUTION 



surcs as he shall judffe necessary and expedient ; he may, on extraordinary 
oc'Oivsioiis, convene Ijoth bouses, or either of tlieni, and in case of disagree- 
ment between tliem, with respect lo the time of adjournment, he rnay 
adjourn them to sucii time as ho shall think proper ; he shall receive am- 
bassadors and other public ministers ; he shall take care that the laws bo 
fiiithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the United 
States. 

OFFICERS REMOVHO. 

Sec. 4. The President, Vice-President, and all civil officers of the United 
States, shall bo removed from office, on imijoacliment for, and conviction 
of, treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors. 

ARTICLE III. 

or THE JUDICIARY. 

Sec. 1. The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one 
Supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time 
to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the Supreme and infe- 
rior Courts, shall hold tlieir offices during good behavior, and shall, at 
stated times, receive for their services a comjiensation which shall not be 
diminished during their continuance in othce. 

Sec. 2. The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and equity, 
arising under this < 'onstitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties 
made, or which shall be made, under their authority ; to all cases affecting 
ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls; to all cases of admiralty 
and maritime jurisdiction ; to controversies to which the United States 
shall be a party; to coutroversics between two or more States; between 
a State and citizens of another State; between citizens of different States; 
between citizens of the same State claiming lands under grants of different 
States, and between a State, or the citizens thereof, ajid foreign States, 
citizens or subjects. 

JTTRISDICTION OF STTPREME COXTRT. 

In all cases aflfecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, 
and those in whicli a State shall be a party, the Supreme Court shall liave 
original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme 
Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such 
exceptions, and under such regulations as the Congress shall make. 

OF TRIALS FOR CRIMES. 

The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury; 
and such trial shall be held in the State where the said crimes shall liave 
been committed; but when not committed within any State, the trial 
shall be at such place or places as the Congress may by law have directed. 

OF TREASON. 

Sec. 3. Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying 
war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and 
comfort. 

No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two 
witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open Court. 

The Congress sliall liave power to declare the punishment of treason, 
but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture, 
except during the life of the person attainted. 

ARTICLE TV. 

STATE ACTS. 

Sec. 1. Full faith and credit sliall be given in each State to the public 
acts, records and judicial iiroceedings of every other State. And the Con- 
gress may, by general laws, prescribe the manner in which such acts, 
records and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof. 

PRIVILEGES OF CITIZENS. 

Sec. 2. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and 
Immunities of citizens in the several States. 

A person charged in any State with treason, felony or other crime, who 
shall flee from justice, and be found in another State, shall, on demand of 



OF THE UNITED STATES. c<-jr 

the execmtive authority of the State from which lie fled, he dolivored up, 
to be removed to the State having j urisdiction of the crime. 

RUNAWAYS TO BE DELIVERED UP. 

No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, 
escaping into another, shall, in cousoquonce of any law or ros^ulatioa 
therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered 
up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due. 

NEW STATES. 

Sec. 3. Xew States maybe admitted by tlie Congress into this ITiiio .; 
but no new State shall be formed or erected witiiin the jurisdiction of any 
other State ; nor any State be formed by tlio J unction of two or more States, " 
or parts of States, without tlie consent of the Legislatures of the States 
concerned as well as of the Congress. 

TERRITORIAL AND OTHER PROPERTY. 

The Congress shall have power to dispose of, and make all needful rules 
and regulations respecting, the territory, or other property licloni^ing to 
tlie United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall bo so construed 
as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular Slate. 

Sec. 4. The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a 
republican form of government, "and shall protect each of them aifainst 
invasion ; and, on application of the Legislature, or of the Executive 
(when the Legislature cannot be convened;, against domestic,violence. 

ARTICLE V. 

AMENDMENTS. 

The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both Houses shall deem it neces- 
sary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution; or, on tlie applica- 
tion of the Legislatures of two-thirds of the several States, shall call a 
Convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall bo 
valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratittcd 
by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the several States, or by Conven- 
tions in three-fourths thereof, as the on(^ or the other mode of ratification 
may be proposed by Congress; provided, that no amendment which may 
be made prior to the vcar one thousand eight hundred and eight, shall in 
any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth Section of the 
first Article; and that no State, without its consent, shall be deprived of 
its equal suffrage iu the Senate. 

ARTICLE VI. 

DEBTS. 

All debts contracted, and ensagements entered into, before the adoption 
of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this 
Constitution as under the Confederation. 

SUPREME LAW OF THE LAND. 

This Constitution, and the laws of the Unite<l States which shall be 
made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or winch shall be made, 
under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law ol the 
land- and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in 
the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithslaiidiug. 

OATH.— NO RELIGIOUS TEST. 

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members 
of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and juihcia olhcers, 
both of the United States and of the several Slates, shall be liouiid by oalh 
or affirmation to support this Constitution ; but no religious testshall ever 
be rec]uired as a qualification to any office, or public trust, under the 
United States. 

ARTICLE VII. 

The ratifications of the Conventions of nine States shall be sufficient for 
the establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the 

Doiie in Convention, by the unanimous consent of the States present, 



576 



CONSTITUTION 



the seventeenth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
seven hundred and eighty-seven, and of the Independence of the United 
States of America the twelfth. In witness wliereof we have hereunto sub- 
scribed our names. 

GEORGE WASHINGTON, 
President, and Deputy from Virginia, 

Neio Hampshire— .lohn Langdon, Nicholas Gilman. M(u^sacliusetts — Na- 
thaniel Gorham, Rufus King. C()nnccticut~V\^ iWiaxa Samuel Johnson, 
Roger Sherman. New Fw-A— Alexander Hamilton. New Jersey — William 
Livingston, David Brearley, William Patterson, Jonathan Dayton. Pcnn- 
■■sylv(uii(i—P>cn'yAn\\\\ Franklin, Thomas Mifflin, Robert Morris, George 
Clyracr, Thomas Fitzsimmons, Jared IngersoU, James Wilson, Governeur 
Morris. /)cto(mrc— George Read, Gunning Bedford, Jr., John Dickinson, 
Richard Bassett, Jacob Broom. Ma ryhmd— James M'Henry, Daniel of St. 
Tho. Jenifer, Daniel Carroll. Virc/inia — John Blair, James Madison, Jr. 
North Carolina— \X\\\iti.n\ Blount, Richard Dobbs Spaight, Hugh William- 
son. South Oaroj in a— 3 o\\n Rutledge, Chas. Cotesworth Pinckney, Charles 
Pinckney, Pierce Butler. Georgia — William Few, Abraham Baldwin. 
Attest William Jackson, Secretary. 



AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION. 

[The first ten amenrlments were proposed by Congress at their first session, in 
1789. Tho eleventh was proposed in 1794, and the twelfth in 1803.] 

ARTICLE I. 

FREE EXERCISE OF RELIGION. 

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or 
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, 
or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to 
petition the Government for a redress of grievances. 

ARTICLE II. 

RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS. 

_ A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, 
the right cf the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. 

ARTICLE in. 

NO SOLDIER TO BE BILLETED, ETC. 

No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered In any house without the 
consent of the owner; nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed 
by law. 

ARTICLE IV. 

UNREASONABLE SEARCHES PROHIBITED. 

Tlie right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and 
effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated; 
and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath 
or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and 
the persons or things to bo seized. 

ARTICLE V. 

CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS. 

No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous 
crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in 
cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual 
service, in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject 
for the same offense to be put twice in Jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall 
be compelled, in any criminal case, to be a witness against himself; nor 
be deprived of life, liberty or property witliout due process of law; nor 
shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation. 



OF THE UNITED STATES. eyy 

ARTICLE VI. 

MODK OF TRIAL. 

In all criminal prosecutions tlie accused shall enjoy the right to a uncedy 
and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wlierem the 
crime shall have been committed, whicli district shall liave been previ- 
ously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of 
the.aceusation; to be confronted with tlic witnesses asainst him; to have 
conipulsory process for obtaininsi witnesses in his favor; and to have tli« 
assistance of counsel for his defense. 

ARTICLE VII. 

EIGHT OF TRIAL BY JURY. 

In suits at common law, where the value in controversr shall exceed 
twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved; and no fact 
tried by jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United 
States than according to the rules of the common law. 

ARTICLE VIIL 

BAIL.— FIXES. 

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor 
truel and unusual punishments inflicted. 

ARTICLE IX. 

EIGHTS NOT ENTTMERATED. 

The enumeration in the Constitution of certain riprhts, shall not be con- 
strued to deny or disparage others retained by the people. 

ARTICLE X. 

POWERS EESERVED. 

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor 
prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively or to 
the people. 

ARTICLE XL 

LIMITATION OF JUDICIAL POWER. 

The iudicial power of the L^nited States shall not be construed to extent? 
to any suit in law or equity commenced or prosecuted against one of ilio 
United States by citizens of another State, or by citizens or subjects of 
another State, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign State., 

ARTICLE XII. 

ELECTION OF PRESIDENT. 

The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot for 
President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, sliall not be an in- 
habitant of the same State with themselves; they shall name in their 
ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person 
voted for as Vice-President; and they shall make distinct lists of all per- 
sons voted for as President and of all i)ers()ns voted for as N'icc-Presiileiit, 
and of the number of votes for each, which list they shall sign and ccriily, 
and transmiti. sealed to the seat of the Government of the liiitcd states, 
directed to the President of the Senate; the President of the Senate sliall, 
in the presence of the Senate and House of Reprosonta lives, ojien all the 
certificates, and the votes shall then bo counted; the iierson having tlio 
greatest number of votes for President sliall be the President, if sudi 
number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed ; and if 
no person have such a majority, then from the persons liaving tho liiirliest 
numbers, not exceeding three, on the list of those voted for as President, 
the House of Representatives shall choose immediately liy ballot flio 
President. But in choosing the President, the vote sliall be taken by 
States, the representatives from each State having one vote; a quorum 
for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of 
the States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. 
And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a president when- 
ever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fiairth day of 
March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, a* 



57S 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 



in the case of the death or other Constitutional disability of the Presi- 
dent. 

The person having tlie greatest number of votes as Vice-President shall 
be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the wliole number 
of f'loctdis appointed; and if no person have a majority, tlien from the 
Vwu I liiihest numbers on tlie list, the. Senate sliall choose the Vice-President; 
a (luorum for 1 ho purpose sliall consist of two-thirds of tlie whole number 
of 8cnators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necssary to a 
choice. 

But no person Constitutionally ineligible to tlie oflice of President shall 
be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States. 

[Ratified in 1805.] 

ARTICLE XIII. 

Skc. 1. Neither Slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punisli- 

ment for crime, whi rcDf tlie party shall have been duly convicli d, ^hall 

exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdictiDU. 

Sbx'. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce ihis article by ai>pr<jpriate 
legislation. 

[Ratified in 1868.] 
ARTICLE XIV. 

Sec. 1. All persons born or naturalized in the TTnited States, and subject 
to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States, and of th6 
State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law wliich 
shall abridge the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United 
States. Nor shall any State deprive any person of lifCj liberty or property, 
without due process of law, nor deny to any jjerson within its jurisdiction 
the equal protection of the laws. 

Sec. 2. Representatives sliall be apportioned among the several States 
according to tlieir respective numbers, counting the whole number of per- 
sons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed; but whenever tlie right 
to vote at any election for electors of President and Vice-President, or 
United States Representatives in Congress, executive and judicial officers, 
or the members of the Legislature therof, is denied to any of the male in- 
habitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the 
United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion 
or other crimes, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the 
proportion which tlie number of such male citizens shall bear to the 
wliole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in that State. 

Sec. 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, 
elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or mili- 
tary, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously 
taken an oath as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United 
States, or as a member of any State Legislature, or as an executive or judi- 
cial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, 
shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given 
aid or comfort to the enemies thereof; hut Congress may, by a vote of two- 
thirds of each House, remove such disability. 

Sec. 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States authorized 
by law, including debts incurred for the payment of pensions and bounties 
for service in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shalVnot be ques- 
tioned; but neither the TTnited States nor any State shall assume to pay 
any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against 
the ITnited States, or any claim for the loss or einancipation of any slave, 
but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be illegal and void. 

Sec. 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legis- 
lation, the provisions of tliis article. 



XI 5^ ^ **. ' ^ [Ratified in 1870.] 

X ^ ^^^ ARTICLE XV: 



Sec. 1. The right of citizens of the TTnited States to vote shall not be 
denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on account of 
race, color or previous condition of servitude. 

Sec. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this Article by appro- 
i)riate legislation. 










^ .^^^ 






v^ 










) N O 



S^ 



&' 






?> -^c^ 











^, «•> 



^■.- ,,^^ 



c^ 



-V 






^: .. N (. „ --Cr, 






%^'^- 
■x^^"-. 



,.X^ .'^'/*.'^o. 






i"^ v-V'T^^ 









0^ c " ^ '• « '<^^ 



0" » 



f^:-<\. 






.0 o 



^. .<^- 






cP 



V 






^ 









^0 

c5 -^ 



'V*'^ 

h CV 






^' ^]i^f:r^\ '-^^ 



V *^ 






t-b^^ 



0' ' 



V 






<^^ " 



» I A 



.O' 





■>- .v 


> ^ 








%%^' 


-- 














~ "^ 


\ 


o 


/ 




'/ 




•'^ 






^*^ 






■^o 


0^ 


"o'-^^^ 


\**' 


.^^ 


"^^^ 


^J 


^ * 9 M ^ 










V 

















oV 






\- 









o 



% c^ 



..^.^\^">>. 



^0 



o-^- 






.-^^^\v 












a.'?-' 












^ .-^ 



Ov"^ * 



-^■z.. 0.V 



